[Vwoolf] Dalloway day and Bloomsday

[Jeremy Hawthorn]

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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