The James Joyce Society of
Sarasota
N O T I C E
TO: All our members and others interested
RE: The Reading
Group Schedule and Agenda -- October 2013 to May 2014
This season we have designed our Agenda for the reading sessions
keeping in mind our efforts to emphasize significant elements of Joyce’s life
and literary output. Therefore, this season involves one major work of Joyce,
an examination of another literary figure closely associated with Joyce, and
some interesting biographical information related to Joyce.
We have selected A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as the
principal focus because it has been ten years since we have read this work. It
seems a good time to revisit Portrait. In a way Portrait has been
overshadowed by Ulysses and Dubliners. However, the Random House
Committee—a jury of scholars and writers--who chose the finest 100 English
novels of the 20th Century considered Ulysses deserved first
place, followed by The Great Gatsby in second place, and A Portrait of
the Artist as a Young Man in third place.
Portrait does embody many themes and innovative techniques that
influenced 20th Century
literature. It is also Joyce’s most personal work and, perhaps, the most
read of all his literary output. It is Joyce’s autobiographical account of a
young man’s intellectual awakening. Ray Matienzo will facilitate the five
sessions devoted to Portrait.
A second part of the 2013 – 2014 season will be a consideration of a
major literary figure who had a significant relationship with Joyce: Samuel Beckett, born in 1906, twenty-two
years younger than Joyce, seems to belong to another generation. He was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature
in 1969, nearly half of a century after the publication of Ulysses. However, Beckett had an intimate place in the
Joyce family life in Paris in the early 1930’s and he assisted the nearly blind Joyce in the
writing of Finnegans Wake.
Kevin O’Halloran and Jack Gilhooley will be doing a duet of sorts on
Beckett. Kevin will discuss Anthony
Cronin’s impressive biography of Beckett.
Jack will lead us through Beckett’s Endgame, one of his most
important plays and among those associated with the Theatre of the Absurd.
A third highlight of the coming season will be a discussion of the
years Joyce spent in Trieste. It does
seem a bit odd that the most creative Irish writer of the 20th
Century (and perhaps all time) should have spent some of his most creative
years in an Adriatic port of the Habsburg Empire. However, owing to a fateful series of
circumstances, this is exactly what happened.
Our Joyceans, Jim McCormack and his wife, Elaine, are travelling to
Trieste expressly
for the purpose of investigating Joyce’s life in this somewhat
backwater port. When Jim returns to
Sarasota, he will share his findings with us.
Finally, we have about four opportunities in the spring of 2014 for
other reading group members to lead discussions on related topics. More
information on this and other matters will be provided at the appropriate time.
The North Sarasota Library has been reserved for all the scheduled
“Second and Fourth” Wednesday meetings, starting at 10:15 AM, from October 23
to May 14. No meetings are scheduled on the fourth
Wednesdays of November and December because of the holidays. The North Sarasota Library, 2801 Newtown
Boulevard, is located one-quarter mile east of the intersection of Highway 301
and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
* * *
Meeting Agenda and Readings
for 2013 – 2014
October 23: Samuel Beckett
Discussion of the life of Samuel Beckett, his relationship with James
Joyce and his daughter Lucia, and his subsequent poetry, novels, and dramatic
works earning for him the Noble Prize in 1969.
Kevin O’Halloran with lead the discussion.
(Text: Samuel Beckett, The Last Modernist (645
pages). Anthony Cronin, Harper Collins, 1996). This
is NOT required reading.
November 13: Endgame
Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. Jack Gilhooley, who may be assisted by his friend,
Peter
Maloney, will present the analysis and discussion of the play.
(Text: Endgame, A Play in
One Act (91 pages), Samuel Beckett, Grove Press, 1958;
NOTE: Many other editions of
this play exist).
December 11: James Joyce in Trieste
Joyce resided in Trieste from 1904 to 1920 (although he was required to
leave Trieste during World War I, when he lived in Zurich). His Trieste years were a highly creative
period in his life. Jim McCormack will
be visiting Trieste this September and October.
He will tell us what he discovered and lead the group discussion.
(Text: The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste 1904 – 1920 (320
pages),
John McCourt, University of
Wisconsin Press, 2000; This is NOT required reading for this session.
January 8, January 22,
February 12, February 26, March 12:
James Joyce,
A Portrait of the Artist as
a Young Man
Ray Matienzo will lead the group through the five sessions dedicated to
this
important novel. This will be
the centerpiece of our reading season.
Ray will suggest a text so that the group can follow one edition, making
it easier for quick reference
to specific passages in the book.
However, this is not required,
just helpful. There are many
editions of this novel.
Ray will also distribute notes for each session as well as critical
literary commentaries on Portrait
at the appropriate time.
Ray will be using: James Joyce, A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
Edited with an Introduction
and Notes by Seamus Deane (New York: Penguin Classics, 2003). ISBN-10: 0142437344, ISBN-13: 978-0142437346.
[Note: It is current available new at Amazon for $9.09 and used copies
are available as well.]
* * *
Enjoy the remaining weeks until our group reunites at the North
Sarasota Library on October 23rd.
Best regards,
Tom Steiner
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