Tuesday 11th November, 6-7 pm.
Literature Ireland, Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, D02 CH22
This talk explores some of Finnegans Wake's metaphors drawn from quantum physics and cosmology, proposing that James Joyce’s writing generates meaning in ways akin to quantum phenomena. By invoking concepts such as uncertainty, superposition, and entanglement, the discussion highlights how Joyce’s final work resists fixed interpretation and continually recreates itself. The presentation argues that translating and reading Finnegans Wake requires embracing multiplicity and indeterminacy. Ultimately, Joyce’s “generative genius” is presented as a literary experiment that follows the uncertainty principle, creating an inexhaustible field of energy that mirrors the complex functioning of the universe itself.
Enrico Terrinoni is currently Professor in residence at the Italian National Academy “Lincei” and Chair of English Literature at the Università per Stranieri di Perugia. He was Visiting Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Mendel Fellow at University of Indiana, Visiting Scholar at Marsh’s Library, and Visiting Professor at the National Taiwan Normal University. He translated many Irish authors such as Brendan Behan, James Stephens, Oscar Wilde, Michael D. Higgins, Bobby Sands, GB Shaw and James Joyce (Ulysses, Finnegans Wake and Dubliners [both with Fabio Pedone]). He also translated works by George Orwell, Muriel Spark, Alasdair Gray, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville and many others. For his translations he won several prizes: the City of Naples Award, the Annibal Caro Prize, The City of Florence – Von Rezzori Prize, The Capalbio International Prize.
Posted to on 3 Nov 2025.