James Joyce's Music Performed

Fugues are complex musical compositions whose intricate contrapuntal texture enchants listeners and performers alike: but how can they be composed from written words, silent on the pages of a book? When James Joyce said that, in the 'Sirens' episode of Ulysses (1922), he aimed to write a fugue, he left his critics and readers wondering about the musical nature of the episode, as well as about the success of his musical intent. In this lucid interdisciplinary study, Arianna Autieri, a musician and translation scholar, interrogates Joyce's 'Sirens' from the standpoint of the (re)translator, investigating how experimental translation can serve as a performative answer to Joyce's famous musical conundrum.

Arianna Autieri is SNSF Ambizione Research Fellow at the Z rcher Hochschule f r Angewandte Wissenschaften in Switzerland, where her research focuses on creativity, AI, and song translation.