[Vwoolf] Dalloway day and Bloomsday
Jeremy Hawthorn
jeremy.hawthorn at ntnu.no
Thu Feb 1 06:25:51 EST 2018
This discussion has sent me back to an article by Harvena Richter: "The
/Ulysses/ Connection: Clarissa Dalloway's Bloomsday." (/Studies in the
Novel/, Fall 1989, 21(3), 305-18.)
Richter writes interestingly about the ways in which Woolf's novel is in
part an engagement with Joyce's (my term not hers). Among the echoes she
lists is the date of Bloomsday and the "middle of June" day in which
/Mrs Dalloway/ is set.
This raises an intriguing issue (or perhaps not!). Dalloway day will, if
suggestions to this list are followed, be a moveable feast: celebrated
not on a day fixed by a date in June, but on a day determined by its
being the X Wednesday of June. If this Wednesday is on the 15th or
earlier, Dalloway day can never coincide with Bloomsday; if it is on the
16th June or later, every now and then the two days will be one.
Different literary groups formed to celebrate the work of a specific
author are sometimes (to echo the opening of Tolstoy's novel) happy
families, and are sometimes very unhappy families. Woolfians are
generally very affable individuals in my experience. I can think of
other author-based groups that are not blessed in this way. But
Joyceans, too, are good-natured people in my experience. So they might
not object to having to share their day with us once in a while. If we
want Dalloway day to fall in the first half of June, why not make the
cut-off date the 16th. Think of the shared conferences and the beautiful
friendships that might be formed!
Just a thought!
Jeremy H
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