Bloomsday — Seattle 2023
The Wild Geese Players of Seattle will present a staged reading of Episode 14, “Oxen of the Sun”, adapted from the 1922 edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Last year marked the centenary of the publication of Ulysses in 1922.
For our 26th annual reading,
we’ll present Episode 14, “Oxen of the Sun”,
at 2:00pm on June 17, 2023 at the
Greenwood Branch
of the Seattle Public Library,
8016 Greenwood Ave N,
Seattle, WA 98103.
Bloomsday (Bloom’s day, named for Ulysses’ main character, Leopold Bloom) refers to the 24-hour period on June 16, 1904 in which Ulysses is set. Joyce’s ground-breaking novel follows the wanderings of Bloom, a Jewish everyman, and Stephen Dedalus, a young writer and Joyce’s alter ego, as they wander the streets of Dublin.
In Episode 14 it is 10pm, and Leopold Bloom visits a maternity hospital, where poor Mina Purefoy is entering her 3rd day of labor. Bloom encounters a group of drunken medical students, who carry on wildly while discussing poor Mrs. Purefoy’s fate. In this episode, Joyce’s incomparable narrative celebrates the history of the English language through elaborate parodies and structures. At the same time, he reveals much about contemporary attitudes surrounding pregnancy and birth.
Script
Read along with the script. Adapted by George Reilly from the Project Gutenberg text.
Press Release
This is our twenty-sixth year of Bloomsday readings. (Press Release).
Commentary on Oxen of the Sun
- Text of Chapter 14
- U22 Podcast: Oxen of the Sun
- The Joyce Project: Oxen of the Sun
- Ulysses Guide
- Kennesaw Guide
- Cliff Notes
- Sparknotes
- The Joyce Portal
- The Sheila Variations
- Joyce Images
- Paul Debraski
- Shmoop Summary and Analysis
- Groden Notes
- Joyce’s Moraculous Sindbook: Suzette Henke — “Nausicaa”: Romantic Fantasy; “Oxen of the Sun”: Procreative Fantasy
- The Modern Word
- James Joyce’s Ulysses: Where It’s Always June 16, 1904 and Oxen of the Sun II
- 1982 RTÉ Recording