Deadline Extended: 22/12/17

We invite contributions for a curated panel to be held at the 26th International James Joyce Symposium

Kaleidoscope— a beautiful (kalos) form (eidos)— invented by Scotsman David Brewster in 1817, presented the world with more than a fangled mirror-toy, patented under the function of “exhibiting and creating beautiful Forms and Patterns of great use in all the ornamental Arts”.  Rather than a mere view, the form itself emerges, the world itself changed by way of the many-colored mirrors. In this light, James Joyce’s writing stands not only to bear a radical poetics, but a complication to the practice of a detached literary hermeneutics. This panel seeks to examine such ways that Joyce’s work demands an approach wherein the very notion of the ‘lens’ as potentiate device falls; in its place is an expansion to the entirety of the category of ‘form’— wherein the act of observation becomes one of a palpable creation, whose product can be again and again confronted, rather than a fleeting view. Joyce’s work opens an avenue of tangible creation, where the ‘product’ of his literary work assembles not only on the page or in imagistic sequences, but constructs and figures with corporeal bearing. 

Possible topics include characters or scenes in Joyce which have spawned extensive and unique representation through the creative arts, excerpts from Joyce that have attained memetic quality, the materiality of Joyce in translation, and confrontation with Joyce’s own conceptions of creation, destruction and sustenance of art. Proposals that carry out philosophical inquiry into the tangibility and ephemerality of the artistic, or how the view and form collide/cohere/elude one another, or how notions of ‘pattern’ interact with the temporal and spatial within Joyce’s work are also encouraged. Contributions from non-traditional academics, and artists from across all media are welcome. 

Abstracts should be approx. 250-400 words and include a brief bio of no more than 100 words. Final submissions no later than 22 December and any questions welcome at kaleidoscopicjoyce@gmail.com. If you would like to request an extension, please reach out as soon as possible. Accepted panelists will be notified by the start of January, with a confirmation required by 15 January. 

The Art of James Joyce

XXVI International James Joyce Symposium

University of Antwerp, 11-16 June 2018

Between 11 and 16 June 2018, the University of Antwerp’s Centre for Manuscript Genetics will host the 26th International James Joyce Symposium in the city that Joyce and his family visited in the summer of 1926. Belgium is small, so much so that all of the sites Joyce toured that year (Ostend, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels and, most importantly, Waterloo) are within a 100-kilometre radius of the conference venue.

In his earliest prose writings, James Joyce described himself as an artist. His brother Stanislaus’s diary and Richard Ellmann’s 1959 biography reinforced this image of Joyce as the lone and dedicated creator who was prepared to give up everything for his art. We interpret the title of this conference as both an objective and a subjective genitive – from Joyce’s aesthetic or artistry to pictures of Cork in cork frames – and as a reminder of Joyce’s long afterlife in the creative arts. We want to explore the role of art as a socially constructed commodity in Joyce’s work as well as trace his fortunes in the fine art and rare book marketplace; we invite studies of the ways in which Joyce crafted his oeuvre, in the wake of The Art of James Joyce, A. Walton Litz’s pioneering study of the creation of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake; and we are also interested in contributions that, creatively or critically, address the impact of Joyce’s artistic persona and work on other artists, in various forms and different mediums.