Bard College Berlin co-organizes the conference Joyce and the Idea of Europe, analyzing the life and legacy of James Joyce

In October, Bard College Berlin hosted the two-day conference “Joyce and the Idea of Europe.” The event was organized by Laura Scuriatti (Bard College Berlin) and Annalisa Volpone (CEMS, University of Perugia) in collaboration with the ICI Berlin and with the support of the Jan Michalski Foundation and the Embassy of Ireland.

Staged in the year that marked the centenary of the publication of Joyce’s Ulysses, the conference centered on the exploration of how his corpus of works offers a complex notion of Europe as a geopolitical and cultural space of exchange. Set against contemporary existential threats to a shared notion of Europe, it intended to revisit Joyce’s vision of European identity, one distinct from a notion of European cosmopolitanism, which is often associated with European modernism and with Joyce himself. 

As part of the conference, the ICI Berlin hosted the reading “After Joyce,” which was introduced by a welcoming address from Dr. Nicholas O’Brien, the Irish Ambassador to Germany and offered presentations by guest speakers Nuala O’Connor and Adrian Duncan. Further lectures included
“Who's He When He's Abroad? Joyce and the Irish in Italy” and “Europe and Europa: The Heritage of Myths for a Critique of Euro-essentialism and Euro-skepticism”.

The event’s full program can be found here.

Post Date: 11-22-2022