Bloomsday. A celebration of James Joyce

James Joyce’s magnum opus Ulysses is famous for its length and difficulty, yet all the events of the book play out over the course of a single day, June 16th. That date is now celebrated around the world as “Bloomsday” (named in honor of the main character Leopold Bloom) and is particularly embraced by lovers of the great writer in his home city and the setting for all of his works, Dublin.

I have been attending Bloomsday for the last 2 years now, shortly after becoming a true Joycean scholar in the final year of my undergrad when, as I mentioned in my introduction post, I took on the literary giant and have been captivated by it ever since. So much so that I chose to specialize in him for my Masters degree and write my thesis around him which lead to me creating this blog to share the experience (sorry, I’m retelling my origin story).

The spirit of the day permeates through the Irish capital as people dress up in clothes reminiscent of the early 1900s style, which makes me feel right at home since I could happily dress like a Dickensian character on any other normal day (I intend on writing a piece on my rather *cough* unique style and its inspirations in the near future). There are various events such as readings and performances held throughout the city. These drew me in as I have a background in theatre and my first ever encounter with Joyce was attending a stage adaptation of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man at my hometown arts centre. Works of Modernism lend themselves so well to spoken performance. There is something about hearing these intricate pieces of writing read aloud that I have always felt helped me to understand them. When I was initially studying Ulysses our lecturer encouraged us to first read each episode ourselves normally and then listen to an audio reading of it. Ulysses is at heart a very human book so it is quite fitting that the best way to share it with others is to read it aloud.

The reading session I have been attending for the past 2 years is held in Woolfe Tone Square, Jervis Street and features a number of artist and performers reading passages from the various episodes of the book. In attendance and performing was scholar, activist and senator David Norris who gave a lively reading from “Nausicaa” (Episode 13). I was even lucky enough to get the opportunity to meet him and briefly talk about my research (and of course take a picture!)

The Bloomsday festival never fails to ignite the passion I feel for this great work of literature. I chose to take it on 2 years ago in-part due to its reputation for being a difficult book but also because I was aware of this great love people have for it and I wanted to understand why. Today it is not simply something I study, I can go to events like this, discuss it with like-minded people, and I still recommend it to friends and current English undergraduates. It is now a part of my life.

So many thanks to Mr Joyce for enriching our culture. I look forward to completing this MA thesis and who knows where our work together will go next? He chose June 16th, an ordinary day, following the lives of ordinary people, yet almost 100 years on we are still returning to that big book to share that day in Dublin with Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus and Molly Bloom.

Featured image: Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin