Spoilt For Joyce: Irish Writers Turn To Nora For New Insights

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Switzerland and Ireland seem like two worlds apart. There has never been any kind of special relationship between the two countries, no historical events linking them in any outstanding way, not even sharing significant migration waves.

Still, musicians, filmmakers, writers and academics are slated to offer more than a simple overview of the current state of Irish culture, including whisky, in the (mostly) French-speaking city of Fribourg, where the first festival of Irish art and cultureExternal link takes place from October 6-8.

But if Fribourg, like Switzerland in general, is certainly a world away from Ireland, Zurich is forever inscribed in the grand history of Irish literature. That's where James Joyce lived with his family during the First World War, and where he wrote most of his magnum opus, Ulysses.

Ulysses is arguably one of the most, if not the most, influential literary works in English of the last century, and exactly a century it has been: last year Joyceans all over the world celebrated the centenary of its publication.

Since then, it has been virtually impossible for any Irish writer to escape the long shadow of Joyce (as well as another illustrious Irish expatriate, Samuel Beckett).

It's a fateful irony that both writers turned their backs on Ireland, living most of their adult lives outside the country, never to return. As a younger – and poorer – Irish expatriate, Beckett also worked as an assistant to Joyce in Paris, where the latter moved after the war.

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Irish author maps out literary Switzerland

This content was published on Jan 25, 2016 Jan 25, 2016 Many writers have found shelter, inspiration and adventure in Switzerland. A new book distils two centuries of literature with Swiss connections.

Although the city of Dublin is thoroughly mapped out and turned into a sort of mythological setting throughout Ulysses, Joyce's expat life spent in Trieste, Zurich and Paris was much more decisive for his literary career than any part of the British islands.

“He had a very complicated relationship with Ireland,” Nuala O ' Connor told SWI swissinfo ahead of the Fribourg festival. O'Connor hasn't turned her back on Ireland, but she has developed a special connection to Switzerland.

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