St Mary’s University, Philosophy
Royal Institute of Philosophy Public Lecture
Prof. Len Platt is Professor of Modern Literatures at Goldsmiths College.
Wednesday 5 March, 2014
5.15pm – 6.45pm, followed by a drinks reception
Senior Common Room, St Mary’s University, Twickenham
Joyce’s last great work is not comprised of many borrowed styles, like Ulysses, but, rather, formulated as one dense, tongue-twisting soundscape. The language of the Wake is based on English vocabulary and syntax but, at the same time, self-consciously designed to function as a machine with an astonishing capacity for resisting singularity of meaning. It also wrecks almost all our standard ways of thinking about what being creative in literary culture means. This talk will consider what kind of creative practice went into the formation of this text and how the Wake shifts our understanding of the aesthetics of creativity