Bloomsday Festival: McGill gets intimate with James Joyce

Djuna Barnes

James Joyce is celebrated as one of the giants of 20th-century English Lit, but how many have read his challenging prose?

You are invited, along with those who have read his masterwork, Ulysses, to get to know Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness writing in a series of films, lectures, live music and staged readings by actors June 13-16. The series is co-ordinated by McGill’s School of Continuing Studies

Bloomsday, marked here and in several countries, commemorates the life and achievements of Joyce by reliving the events of June 16, 1904, the focus of the novel.

That is the date of his first meeting with Nora Barnacle, who later became his wife, as they strolled in a Dublin suburb. Leopold Bloom is the name of book’s protagonist.

Highlights

June 13 Bloomsbury Cabaret: Love’s Old Sweet Songs, presents early 20th-century parlour songs and readings, 12:30-1:30 pm, Atwater Library; 7:30-9 pm, Côte St Luc Public Library; June 14, Beaconsfield Library, 7-8 pm.

June 14 Panel discussion, lectures on Bloomin’ Girls and Ireland in the Irish Diaspora in 1904, with professors Susan Cahill and Jane McGaughey, Canadian School of Irish Studies, Concordia, 10 am-1:30 pm, Suite 1001, 1455 de Maisonneuve W.

Dr. Michael Kenneally, principal, School of Irish Studies at Concordia, on Joyce’s Methods in Dubliners: Araby, 4-5:30 pm. McCord Museum, 690 Sherbrooke W.

June 15 Griffintown Ghosts: A Walking Tour of Irish Montreal, with Ruth Rigby, outside Place Victoria métro, 9:45 am, 690 St. Jacques, corner of McGill.

June 16 Bloomsday Lives, readings from Ulysses bring to life Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus, Westmount Public Library, 11-2 pm, 4574 Sherbrooke W.

Global Bloomsday Gathering

Well-known Montrealers link up with 24 cities via Skype from Dublin’s James Joyce Centre, 2:30-3:30 pm, Westmount Public Library. 514-398-8234.

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