News
2023.11.13
On October 15, 2023 (Sunday), the Research Center for Textual Scholarship held an event in Classroom 321 of Building No. 3 of Seijo University. The event featured a lecture by Professor Hans Walter Gabler titled “Resurrection of Love, Its Trajectory: Discussing the Significance of Gabler’s Edition of ‘Ulysses’ Today”. Last year, James Joyce’s “Ulysses” celebrated its 100th anniversary since its first publication. This event included a workshop for Japanese researchers on Gabler’s edition of “Ulysses”, which is widely used in Joyce studies, and a Zoom lecture by the editor, Professor Gabler himself. About 50 people participated on the day, and both the workshop and the lecture saw active participation from the audience.
First, in the workshop, we were honoured to have Professor Kazuo Yokouchi (Kwansei Gakuin University) and Professor Yoshimi Minamitani (Associate Professor at Kyoto University) speak about the specific editing methods of Gabler’s edition of “Ulysses” and its historical position in research following its publication. Professor Yokouchi talked about how to interpret the three-volume Gabler edition of “Ulysses”, explaining in detail Joyce’s writing process from drafts to typescripts and proofs, and how various textual variants that arose during the writing process and after publication are presented in Gabler’s edition. This was done while closely examining the various symbols attached to the text and the Textual Notes and Historical Collation included in the third volume. Following this, Professor Minamitani discussed the controversies that arose after the publication of Gabler’s edition, in light of the publication history of “Ulysses”, focusing on the love passage restored in the text in the ninth episode (“Do you know what you are talking about? Love, yes. […]”). The workshop confirmed that the essence of Gabler’s editing lies in the abundant “materials” showing the text’s generation process and textual variants and that this editing, while conflicting with existing interpretations of the work, opened up new possibilities for reading, thus confirming the editorial and historical significance of Gabler’s edition.
In the following lecture, Professor Gabler, focusing on the love passage from the ninth episode discussed in the workshop, delivered a Zoom lecture titled “Do you know what you are talking about?” (on-site interpreted by Professor Soichiro Onose of Japan Women’s University (Lecturer)). He elaborated in detail on one episode, and specifically one passage, of his actual editorial work on “Ulysses”. Regarding this passage, which was written in Joyce’s fair copy known as the “Rosenbach Manuscript” but omitted in the first edition, Professor Gabler explained his editorial decision. He suggested the existence of a lost ‘final working draft’ based on his examination of this fair copy and the typescript that formed the basis of the first edition’s typesetting, indicating that the omission of this passage was not an intentional deletion by the author but a mere oversight by a third party. Moreover, according to Professor Gabler, this love passage does not lack narrative coherence; rather, it resonates with the novel's final scene and last word (“Yes”). Thus, the lecture was a valuable event where we directly heard from the editor himself about the central issues of editorial work, such as how to analyse various materials involved by the author and how to edit the text based on that analysis.
In the subsequent Q&A session, heated responses were given by Professor Gabler to a wide range of questions, from those directly related to the lecture content, such as why Joyce overlooked such a typist’s mistake and the relationship between Joyce and the typist, to broader aspects related to textual scholarship, including positioning of his “Ulysses” editing in the context of German and British editorial scholarship.
After the conclusion of the lecture, a tea party was held at Lounge #08 in Building No. 8 for the speakers and attendees. This gathering, carrying over the enthusiasm from the lecture, served as a vibrant forum for Joyce enthusiasts, making it a fitting end to the event.
The Research Center for Textual Scholarship will continue to host events related to textual scholarship regularly. Details of such events will be announced on our university’s website, so those interested are encouraged to participate.
