Spatial Theory in "Ulysses" and Post-Colonial Literature

The Ridge Lecture in Literature featuring Ato Quayson
Ato Quayson, the Jean G. and Morris M. Doyle Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies and Professor of English at Stanford, discusses James Joyce’s use of physical space in Ulysses. Joyce's Ulysses situates Leopold Bloom's perambulations as the conduit for thinking about semi-imperial Dublin in the early 20th century. They also raise implications about the complex configurations of space and temporality in the wider Empire in the same period. This talk uses this spatially introverted and extroverted quality of Ulysses to rethink both formalist and Marxist theories of space for literary analysis in the 21st century, offering new readings of other postcolonial literary writers of urban spaces, such as Salman Rushdie (Midnight's Children), Ayi Kwei Armah (The Beautyful [sic] Ones are not Yet Born), Naguib Mahfouz (Midaq Alley), and Toni Morrison (Jazz), among many others.

This video is part of the proceedings of the "Joycean Cartographies: Navigating a New Century of Ulysses" conference, which took place at The Huntington to mark the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses in February 2022.

This conference is co-hosted by the President's office and by the Research Division of The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in collaboration with the Library Division. We are grateful for additional support from the Consulate General of Ireland in Los Angeles and the Pomona College Department of English.