Event overview
Goldsmiths Literature Seminar
Sophie Corser (Goldsmiths):
'Constructing the Author, from James Joyce to Tom Stoppard'
('With which JOYCE produces a rabbit out of his hat, puts the hat on his head, and leaves, holding the rabbit.') 'Travesties', Act I
Questions of authorship, readership, and textuality prompted by James Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses are complicated by the role of biographical information within and without the text. The autobiographical nature of Ulysses, deification of Joyce in the development of Joycean criticism, and Joyce’s early involvement in the elucidations of Ulysses – threads of which are still present in contemporary critical works – form confusing overlaps of biography, criticism, and literature. In this GLITS session I will compare Arthur Power’s memoir Conversations with James Joyce and Tom Stoppard’s play Travesties (both 1974), to challenge the authority of an authorial figure constructed from biographical recollections. Allowing Stoppard’s Joyce, born of biographies, letters, and Ulysses (and presented as a fiction within a fiction), to undermine the conceit of the long, detailed, didactic speeches made by Power’s Joyce (presented as recollected truth), this paper will further reflect on how such considerations draw one back irresistibly to Ulysses itself.
For more information, contact Tanguy Harma
tharm009@gold.ac.uk
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 4 Dec 2014 | 6:30pm - 8:00pm |
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