Agata Szczeszak-Brewer will be reading at 7:30 pm on October 4, 2023, in the Peeler Auditorium (in the Peeler Art Center).
James Joyce's Oriental Women: Aladdin and "Circe": This talk will focus on "Circe"—an outrageous, obscene, funny, and thought-provoking chapter in James Joyce's Ulysses. Specifically, I will ask this question: What can the conventions of Beijing Opera teach us about reading women and ethnic others in Joyce's "Circe"? I will explore the shared symbolic representation of the gendered body and the gesture in Chinese theater and the "Circe" chapter of Ulysses. In both cases, the performers hyperbolize movements, gestures, and non-verbal responses. Close reading of the stage directions in "Circe" and an analysis of the theatrical conventions employed and subverted in Joyce's text ultimately reveal a scathing commentary on the gendered image of the other in turn-of-the century Ireland.