Irish Ulysses also wanders in Tartu

On 16 June 2022, Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece Ulysses, wanders at the UT College of Foreign Languages and Cultures.

2022 marks the centenary of Irish writer James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The wandering of the novel’s protagonist Leopold Bloom on the streets of Dublin echoes the long homecoming of Homer’s Ulysses, although instead of heroic feats we see mundane life and earthly urges. “Joyce’s novel is considered one of the most significant texts of modernist fiction whose experimental style, rich in devices such as the use of stream of consciousness, definitively changed English-language literature. For example Vladimir Nabokov has named it the greatest masterpiece of 20^th century prose,“ stressed Raili Marling, Professor of English Studies at the University of Tartu.

The novel’s actions span one day, 16 June 1904, and over 70 years the day has been celebrated in Ireland – and increasingly across the world – as Bloomsday. This year one can join the celebrations on 16 June also in Tartu. “It is only fitting that the event that blends city space and literature in Dublin, a UNESCO City of Literature, should reach Tartu, another City of Literature. It is also a notable coincidence that the present building of the college at Liivi 4, where the celebrations take place, was also completed in 1904, the year in which the novel is set,“ noted Ene-Reet Soovik, a scholar of city and literature from the Department of Semiotics.

Before Bloomsday an exhibition on the life of James Joyce and his Ulysses, supported by the Embassy of Ireland in Estonia, can be seen in the entrance hall of Liivi 4. On 16 June, Classical philologists will illustrate the parallels between the novel and its ancient sources with a pop-up display. At 17 in Room 211 extracts from Ulysses will be read in different languages. This will include the first public reading from Paul-Eerik Rummo’s as yet unpublished Estonian translation. The programme is concluded by the viewing of the new documentary 100 Years of Ulysses (2022, directed by Ruan Magan).