JAMES JOYCE 2010
Prague 2010
On behalf of the International James Joyce Foundation, we invite you to the XXII International James Joyce Symposium in the “Golden City” of Prague, 13-18 June 2010.
Prague is at the centre of Europe as Joyce is at the centre of the tradition of European modernism, and it is fitting that the major European author of the twentieth century be honoured in the city that is the very heart of modern Europe.
Historically, some of the earliest translations of Joyce’s work appeared in Prague, and the first President of the Czechoslovak Republic - T.G. Masaryk - was even believed to have annotated a first edition of Ulysses, although only the first French edition survives in the Masaryk archive today.
Nowadays the work of Joyce represents a major focal point of philological research at Charles University, where the first electronic journal of Joyce scholarship was founded in 1994: Hypermedia Joyce Studies. Since 2003 a biannual Joyce colloquium has taken place in Prague, augmented by a series of book publications through the Litteraria Pragensia imprint.
Charles University is itself one of the oldest universities in Europe, having been founded in 1348. Moreover, the Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures was the original home of Prague Structuralism, whose legacy-through the work of Rene Wellek and Roman Jakobson - has had an enduring impact on Joyce scholarship internationally. It is only fitting that Joyce’s work be celebrated in such an environment, in a country that was also the homeland not only of Kafka, but of Freud, Mahler and Husserl.
Patron
We are proud to announce that the patron of the XXII International James Joyce Symposium is the former Czech President, dissident and playwright, Vaclav Havel.
Dedication
Professor Donald Theall in his office4th floor Beta Library Trent University
It is the wish of the host committee to dedicate the 2010 Symposium to the memory of Prof. Donald F. Theall (1928-2008).
Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Donald Theall, took his B.A. from Yale University in 1950, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1951 and 1954. He rose through the ranks from Lecturer to Professor at Toronto from 1953 to 1965, being Chairman of the Combined Departments of English there in his final year.
After becoming Chairman and Molson Professor, Department of English, McGill University from 1966 to 1973, and then Founding Director and Molson Professor, Graduate Program in Communications, from 1974 to 1980, Theall joined Trent University in Peterborough as President and Vice-Chancellor from 1980 to 1987, University Professor from 1987 to 1994, and University Professor Emeritus from 1994. During this period he served on the Board of Directors, International Communication Association (1979-81), as Founding President, Canadian Communication Association (1978-80), as First Cultural Exchange Professor, Canada to the People's Republic of China (1974), and as Co-Director, National Film Board of Canada/McGlll University Summer School on Media (1967-71).
He published widely on communication theory, Marshall McLuhan, poetic theory, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Wyndham Lewis, Science Fiction, Film Theory, Alexander Pope, satire, Harold Innis, virtual reality (VR), and Cyberspace, including "Beyond the Orality/Literacy Dichotomy: James Joyce and the Pre-history of Cyberspace" in Postmodern Culture (1992). His recent books include The Virtual Marshall McLuhan (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001), James Joyce's Techno-Poetics (University of Toronto Press, 1997), Beyond the Word: Reconstructing Sense in the Joyce Era of Technology, Culture, and Communication (1995). He has also guest-edited a Special McLuhan issue of the Canadian Journal of Communications in 1975 with G. J. Robinson and has published The Medium is the Rear View Mirror: Understanding McLuhan (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1971).
A pioneer in computing in the humanities, Donald Theall made an extraordinary contribution to literature on-line with his Web version of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake and Ulysses.
Logo
The Symposium logo was designed by Ken Nash.