Call for Papers“I overstand you, you understand”: Joyce and the Nightmare of Interpretation

Conference Dates:

4–5 February 2027

Deadline for Abstracts:

9 November 2026

Successful Applicants Will Be Notified By:

30 November 2026

Keynote speakers:

Sara Sullam, University of Milan

Kris Peeters, University of Antwerp

Organisers:

Franca Ruggieri,

Fabio Luppi,

Enrico Terrinoni,

Serenella Zanotti

The James Joyce Italian Foundation invites proposals for the Nineteenth Annual Conference in Rome to celebrate Joyce’s 145th birthday.

“I overstand you, you understand,” Joyce writes in Finnegans Wake, encapsulating the paradox at the heart of his work: every act of understanding also transforms, complicates, or exceeds its object. Rather than yielding fixed meanings, Joyce’s writings invite an endless process of interpretation across languages, cultures, and media.

This conference explores Joyce’s works as inexhaustible sites of interpretation. We welcome contributions examining how reading, translation, adaptation, performance, and criticism continue to reshape Joyce for new audiences and new historical moments.

Suggested topics include

• Joyce and the limits of interpretation
• Translation as interpretation
• Reading Finnegans Wake
• Joyce across languages and cultures
• Hermeneutics and Joyce
• Adaptation as interpretation
• Performing Joyce
• Reception and reinterpretation
• Joyce and artificial intelligence
• Joyce studies today

Please send an abstract (maximum 500 words) together with a short narrative biographical note (not a cv) to joyceconference@gmail.com.

Please submit two separate Word documents (not PDFs).

Selected papers will be considered for publication. The conference will include the traditional Joyce Birthday Party.

Deadline for proposals: 9 November 2026
Notification of acceptance: 30 November 2026

Participants will be expected to join The James Joyce Italian Foundation. Accepted speakers are responsible for their own accommodation and travel.

https://thejamesjoyceitalianfoundation.it/

ALL PAPERS WILL BE DELIVERED IN PERSON.