In Dublin, the celebration of James Joyce and "Ulysses" will go on for a week, with participants taking a walk on June 16 that follows Bloom's route through the city. A series of literary events continues through the rest of the month.
In New York City, Symphony Space will celebrate Bloomsday for the 29th straight year with Broadway and film stars plus regulars from the PBS series "Selected Shorts" reading excerpts from the novel. This program will be streamed live at www.symphonyspace.org.
Other Bloomsday cities in the U.S. include Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Seattle -- and this year, Charleston.
The Kanawha County Public Library is sponsoring a noontime program of readings and other presentations related to Bloomsday at the main library. This inaugural celebration has come about because of a small but dedicated group of Joyce fans.
About five years ago, Ruth Kennedy was instrumental in assembling a group of people to read through the formidable text of "Ulysses" with help from a Teaching Company course on the novel. Because of their initial exposure to the Bloomsday concept, that small group has been celebrating June 16 each year, meeting in their homes to share an Irish meal and some readings from "Ulysses."
This year the library will sponsor the first official Charleston Bloomsday. Charleston resident Brendan McCabe, a native of Ireland, will serve as the emcee of the program, which includes a brief outline and assessment of "Ulysses," readings from the novel and slides featuring Dublin locations on the Bloomsday walk.
Want to go?
Bloomsday in Charleston
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 16
WHERE: Kanawha County Public Library, John V. Ray Room
INFO: Bring your lunch.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- James Joyce had his first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle, on June 16, 1904 -- a date that became the time setting for Joyce's most famous novel, "Ulysses."
"Ulysses" takes place on this one day in Dublin as the two main characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, walk around the city. As Dedalus and Bloom encounter the complicated entanglements of their lives as Dubliners, they also encounter each other.
Some critics believe that the narrative and psychological depictions of Dedalus and Bloom symbolize different aspects of Joyce's own tortured relationship with his homeland.
The reader of "Ulysses" participates not only in these intricate explorations of Irish nationalism and Catholicism, but also in Joyce's attempt to mirror Homer's "Odyssey." The chapters in "Ulysses" are named for the chapters in the "Odyssey." Bloom is a modern Odysseus, who is wending home through dangerous encounters -- all in one day and all in Dublin.
The other symbolic, overtly recognizable signal Joyce gives the reader in choosing this structure and name for the novel is that you should be aware that you are reading a classic. Indeed, modern critics agree with Joyce on this point.
At the turn of the millennium in 2000, Random House chose the best books of the 20th century written in English. "Ulysses" was at the top of the list. Joyce would have appreciated this ironic culminating triumph of his novel, given its checkered history.
Joyce struggled to have his works published in Ireland. When the arrangements with a Dublin publishing house to bring out "Dubliners" fell through, Joyce left Ireland, never to return.
"Ulysses" was originally printed in part as a serialization in an American journal, The Little Review, from March 1918 to December 1920. Finally, Sylvia Beach, owner of the Shakespeare & Company Bookstore in Paris, agreed to publish the novel.
After its publication in 1922, "Ulysses" was banned in Britain and the United States. It was Random House in 1932 that arranged to have a copy of the banned book seized by U.S. customs in order to challenge the import ban. From then on "Ulysses" tentatively and slowly took the stage as a modern classic exactly as Joyce had intended.
In 1954, Irish writers Flann O'Brien and Patrick Kavanagh decided to take a tour of the Dublin locations featured in Joyce's famous novel, reading and drinking as they went. As with the rise of the novel itself, this "re-enactment" practice slowly became "Bloomsday," a modern celebration that takes place in more than 60 cities around the world.
In Dublin, the celebration of James Joyce and "Ulysses" will go on for a week, with participants taking a walk on June 16 that follows Bloom's route through the city. A series of literary events continues through the rest of the month.
In New York City, Symphony Space will celebrate Bloomsday for the 29th straight year with Broadway and film stars plus regulars from the PBS series "Selected Shorts" reading excerpts from the novel. This program will be streamed live at www.symphonyspace.org.
Other Bloomsday cities in the U.S. include Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Seattle -- and this year, Charleston.
The Kanawha County Public Library is sponsoring a noontime program of readings and other presentations related to Bloomsday at the main library. This inaugural celebration has come about because of a small but dedicated group of Joyce fans.
About five years ago, Ruth Kennedy was instrumental in assembling a group of people to read through the formidable text of "Ulysses" with help from a Teaching Company course on the novel. Because of their initial exposure to the Bloomsday concept, that small group has been celebrating June 16 each year, meeting in their homes to share an Irish meal and some readings from "Ulysses."
This year the library will sponsor the first official Charleston Bloomsday. Charleston resident Brendan McCabe, a native of Ireland, will serve as the emcee of the program, which includes a brief outline and assessment of "Ulysses," readings from the novel and slides featuring Dublin locations on the Bloomsday walk.
Want to go?
Bloomsday in Charleston
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 16
WHERE: Kanawha County Public Library, John V. Ray Room
INFO: Bring your lunch.
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