The Continued Thoughts of Molly Bloom — Content warnings: childbirth, (mild) body horror, abortion reference, stream-of-consciousness style/intentional run-on Yes it was all his fault sending her away like that where I couldnt keep an eye on her fourteen such a tender age all of the fire and none of the sense I wasnt much older the first…

A major literary landmark is rotting in a UNESCO City of Literature — The final story of James Joyce’s Dubliners, titled “The Dead,” takes place at Number 15 Usher’s Island in Dublin, once home to his great aunts who inspired the story by hosting extravagant dinner parties in the stunning Georgian townhouse in the 1890s. A tale of hospitality, miscommunication, and marital strife…

On June 16, Dublin is flooded by Joyceans celebrating Ulysses — It’s that time of year again: that special time when tourists flood Ireland. No, not St. Patrick’s Day — Bloomsday! Every year on June 16, fans of James Joyce’s Ulysses make a pilgrimage to the city where it all happens, Dublin, to partake in a variety of activities. What is Bloomsday? Bloomsday is…

James Joyce’s most perplexing text isn’t as hard as you think! — Finnegans Wake, James Joyce’s notoriously perplexing final book from 1939, takes beginning in medias res to a whole new level. Its first line dumps the reader into the middle of Dublin’s murky River Liffey, starting the story literally mid-stream: riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend…

An Post releases two stamps to celebrate James Joyce’s Ulysses — Released just in time for the 100th birthday of James Joyce’s Ulysses, An Post commissioned two stamps to mark the occasion: a national stamp for use within Ireland (above) and an international stamp (below), both currently available for purchase from An Post. Two Amsterdam-based Irish designers, Dublin-born twins Garech and…

It’s Reviewsday Tuesday! How does Joseph Strick’s adaptation of Joyce’s infamous novel hold up? — Joyce’s infamous novel turned 100 this year — and Joseph Strick’s adaptation turned 55. At the time of its release in 1967, Strick’s film was highly controversial, not unlike the novel itself, which was banned for obscenity in the United States and elsewhere throughout the 1930s and 40s. When the…

When it comes to sexual harassment, assault, and abuses of power in academia, we need to name, shame and kick ’em to the curb — In 2017, just after having presented a paper at my first academic conference, I was cornered in a dark stairwell, alone, with a man’s crotch an inch from my face, and had masturbation explained to me in graphic detail. For over a year, I questioned the validity of my discomfort…

A research grant that leads to a lifetime of friendships — In 2019, I was awarded a research grant from the Friends of the Zürich James Joyce Foundation, an organization that helps researchers working on an established project travel to Zürich to work with the large collection of archival material on James Joyce in the library at 9 Augustinergasse, the ZJJF…

Famed Irish writer James Joyce was born OTD: February 2, 1882 — February 2, 2022 marks James Joyce’s 140th birthday. Joyce is known for his incredibly influential and experimental literary works, Ulysses (published 100 years ago on Joyce’s fortieth birthday, 1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). He is also the author of a semi-autobiographical novel (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young…

Check out this literary landmark the next time you’re in Dublin — At first glance, it may be easy to overlook Sweny’s Pharmacy. Tucked away on Lincoln Place in Marion Square, Dublin, this treasure looks deceptively simple. There are no flashy signs, no arrows pointing toward its entrance, no tour guides pushing their group toward the building (unless it’s June 16th). …

Are the “dirty” parts still enough to shock us after 100 years? — James Joyce’s Ulysses turns 100 tomorrow! Although it is now considered a literary classic and is a common feature of those “100 books to read before you die” lists, Joyce’s 1922 novel was once considered too obscene to print. Joyce had already struggled to find a publisher for his much-cleaner…

Even James Joyce’s Ulysses depicts workplace sexual harassment — Reading Ulysses in today’s social and political climate necessarily means grappling with concepts that James Joyce could never have predicted when he first published the provocative novel in 1922. The past couple of years have been particularly revealing when it comes to the pervasiveness of workplace sexual harassment, a problem…