Our schemas & themes

ULYSSES European Odyssey was inspired not only by Joyce’s European masterpiece, but also by his own schema to his book that he initially circulated among close friends. Joyce wrote two schemas; his Linati schema in 1920 to assist Carlo Linati understand the fundamental structure of the book and his Gilbert schema in November 1921 to help his friend, Valery Larbaud, prepare a public lecture on the novel.

In both schemas Joyce identified city settings, times of the day, colours, bodily organs, scientific and artistic disciplines and symbols for each episode. He also identified the chapter his episodes linked to in Homer’s Odyssey. In the Gilbert schema he also gave each episode a ‘technique’, ranging from narrative to monologue, narcissism to hallucination.

(Joyce’s Linati schema can be found here)

ARTS OVER BORDERS took both schemas as inspiration to create its own 21^ST century schema as a blueprint for the ULYSSES European Odyssey (UEO) project, replacing Joyce’s scenes with European cities, times of the day with months of the year, science & arts with contemporary art forms. Crucially, and assisted by Brave New World Producties, we added a social issues column which explored the themes in each episode of the novel and developed them into modern day European (global) urgencies. This helped shape the eventual structure of the overall project, particularly in identifying the best cities to match the issues.

Thereby, Ulysses, a 100-year-old novel started to reveal itself in a new, compelling way, offering a rich and provocative modern day relevance. Subsequently, a broad range of organisations were sought to reflect and best realise this new UEO schema. Out of a number of meetings led by the Lead Partner BNWP, recommendations, new contacts for new cities and partners were brought together.

The contemporary European urgencies explored during UEO were:

ACT I 2022

Youth, citizenship & democracy – ATHENS
Weight of history – TRIESTE
Urban renewal and the reinvention of the city – VILNIUS
The role of neighbourhood communities in post-Covid Europe – BUDAPEST
Migration, porosity and integration – MARSEILLE
Our creative dialogue with the dead – PARIS

ACT II 2023

Commodity fetish, warehouse logistics and torn dreams of the 21st century – BERLIN
Our modern day relationship with food – production, distribution, consumption – LUGO
Education reform – COPENHAGEN
Co-existence – ISTANBUL
What are the dangers that a future Europe must navigate? – CLUJ-NAPOCA
Is being a European citizen more important than being a citizen of an individual nation? – ZURICH
Gender & Sexual identity – LEEUWARDEN
The ecological challenges facing our sacred seas and shores – ELEUSIS
Mental well-being in Europe today – OULU

ACT III 2024

Europe’s ageing population: a crisis or an opportunity? – LISBON
What is home? – DUBLIN
The future: A female vision – DERRY/DONEGAL

These Arts & Society contemporary European themes – which were the focus of each city’s mini-symposium – will result in a pamphlet, Will You Answer? 309 Questions from Europe (as inspired by Episode 17 of Ulysses) regarding the role the Arts could play in society for a better future Europe. The pamphlet will be published in the Autumn of 2024 and be digitally available on this website.