"Ah, Dedalus! The Greeks! I must teach you. You must read them in the original" (U 1.79-80), declares Buck Mulligan to Stephen. The proclamation that one "must read them [the Greeks] in the original" can hardly be taken lightly, given that it occurs in a book which Joyce has chosen to title Ulysses. As Fritz Senn observes, "the question of experiencing great literature merely through the medium of restrictive translations is written into the book." He notes further that "Mulligan's amicable gesture (or taunt) seems balanced by a reciprocal comment in the library chapter.... To match Mulligan's boast of reading in the original, Stephen echoes the phrase and connects it with the late Latin of a theologian." The passage to which he refers reads: "—Saint Thomas, Stephen smiling said, whose gorbellied works I enjoy reading in the original, writing on incest" (U, 9.778). A most urgent and obvious question is thus incited by Joyce's book but never answered: did Joyce himself take Buck Mulligan's advice? Did he read the Greeks in the original? Or, like Stephen, did he appreciate Latin texts in the original instead?
No other modernist writer in English has attracted more or broader international attention than James Joyce. Translations, adaptations, and imitations as well as works of criticism are being published in increasing numbers and frequency, and show a proliferating diversity of approaches and perspectives on the work, life, and influence of Joyce. In view of the internationalism of Joyce studies, and the current dissemination of literary-critical pluralism, this peer-reviewed series hopes to offer a platform for specifically "European" perspectives on Joyce's works, their adaptations, annotation, and translation, studies in biography, the history of and current debates in Joyce criticism, Joyce's place in literary history, matters of influence and the transmission of ideas etc. In calling this series "European" in the broadest sense, we aim at soliciting not only the submission of articles by European contributors, but more generally all essays and research focusing on issues of European concern such as language, nationality and culture, literary-historical movements, ideology, politics, and distribution, as well as literary-critical perspectives with European roots.
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European Joyce Studies
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