Fogarty, Matthew
(2016)
Centenary Readings of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man Conference, 5–6 May 2016.
Dublin James Joyce Journal, 9 (1).
pp. 137-140.
Abstract
There are few places finer to participate in one’s first Joyce conference, or
indeed better equipped to host a centenary reappraisal of A Portrait of the Artist
as Young Man, than the James Joyce Centre. Located at the very epicentre of the
city forever immortalized by the author’s magnum opus, its neighbouring
shopfronts offer a poignant snapshot of the ever-increasing impact made by
the global upon local. Stretching either side of the Parnell monument, the
amalgamation of Oriental food stores, multi-million dollar fast food chains
and overseas supermarket conglomerates provide a stirring contrast to the
elegant Georgian architecture that to this day still dignifies the hill of North
Great George’s Street. Once inside the Centre’s Kenmare Room, the timewarping
illusion is finally complete: on all sides one is surrounded by
reproductions of portraits of the author and his family, while the great ceiling
showcases the skilfully restored vision of master stuccodore, Michael
Stapleton, which had all but disappeared by 1982. How fitting, then, that these
conference proceedings should have begun on Thursday evening with a key
note lecture that so effectively re-emphasised the importance of the localised
Irish context within the overlapping contexts of Joyce’s modernist
Bildungsroman.
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