A talk on James Joyce’s novel ‘Ulysses’ will be delivered next month by Charles Durante. ‘Ulysses’ is considered a landmark of world literature.  Published in 1922, it has acquired iconic status, becoming the quintessential modernist text, endlessly and exhaustively read and studied by devoted readers and academics.  Joyce wanted to write a modern Irish nationalist epic, a vast comic novel, full of pathos, satirical humour, vitality and playfulness.

The aim of the talk will be precisely to highlight those qualities of the novel and to open up this most resistant of texts to ordinary readers, who may have contemplated reading it, but felt they needed some guidance and help.

Intriguingly, Gibraltar plays a prominent role, especially in the last chapter of the novel, when it becomes the subject of Molly’s somnolent reverie.

The talk will take place on the 5 November at 7:00pm, in the John Mackintosh Hall, Charles Hunt Room.  There will be a Power Point presentation, and a leaflet with the ground plan of Ulysses will be distributed.  This will provide the audience with an initial orientation.  Entrance is free.

Later in November, GBC will be showing a Joyce documentary which will focus on the presence of Gibraltar in Molly’s famous monologue.  The talk is intended to provide an initial introduction to Joyce’s groundbreaking novel.