Bulletin Board
Announcing a reading group on the limits of the novel - Art Institute of Chicago
June 5 - August 29
This summer the School of the Art Institute, Chicago will be hosting an international online reading group on Arno Schmidt's novel Bottom's Dream, still one of the twentieth century’s most complex and reader-unfriendly novels. It's 1,300 oversize pages—Schmidt estimated it's the equivalent of 5,000 ordinary pages—full of strange formatting, unconventional spelling, and typographic innovations.
We’ll be focusing especially on questions of reading: what counts as narrative or plot in Bottom’s Dream? How can a given page be read, at what speed, in which directions, with what detours? What are the book’s precedents and influences? Schmidt was preoccupied with Finnegans Wake, but what exactly was Finnegans Wake for him?
The group will have several guests later in the summer, including John Woods, the translator.
We meet Saturdays at 10 AM Central Time from June 5 until the end of summer. Readings and conversation will be in English, with reference throughout to the German sources. All further information is here.
James Elkins
School of the Art Institute Chicago
The Bulletin Board is for informational purposes only. The English Department does not explicitly endorse any of the particular events or opportunities listed here.