Dancing in the Dark: Re-Mythologising James Joyce’s Bat-Like Souls


October 24 2022

The theme of this composite artistic event is concomitant and Dr. Caroline Elbay’s talk will address how, from the ‘bat-like soul’ of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to the ’little bats [who] don’t tell’ in Ulysses and the ‘bawk of bats’ in Finnegans Wake, Joyce’s alignment of the bat with female characters essentially debunks negative stereotypes, thus placing the bat in its rightful place as a symbol of the creative spirit and positioning women in an environment of growing self-empowerment and liberation in the modern world.

Dr. Caroline Elbay’s talk will take place on Monday, 24 October at 7pm.

The exhibition will run from 24 October to 7 November and will feature original art and film by Dr. Joyce Garvey that are inspired by the myriad references to bats across the Joycean oeuvre and also by Lucia Joyce’s illustrations.

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