This year (2014) marks the centennial of the publication of James Joyce’s
classic collection of short stories, Dubliners.
This collection of sketches was Joyce’s attempt to give Dublin to the
world. The book is a paradoxically naturalistic and symbol-haunted
depiction of Irish middle-class life in the early years of the 20th
century when the Irish Literary Revival was at its peak, and the search
for a national identity and purpose was paramount. Joyce’s style of
“scrupulous meanness” in his stories offers an ironic critique to such
longings. He would instead diagnose a more profound
condition of paralysis beneath the emerging nation’s cultural
ideologies. This colloquium will present Joyce within the contexts of
his family, his artistic ambitions, and the Irish Literary Revival,
while also presenting his multifaceted creative engagement
with the passion, paralysis, and loneliness inscribed in a city.
Originally
from Dublin (a long time ago!), Patrick O’Donnell holds a Ph.D.
in Anglo-Irish literature from University College Dublin, and teaches
composition and literature at Normandale. He is an enthusiastic
participant in the on-going Colloquium Series.
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