I visited the Department of English, Film and Drama at the Belfield Campus in University College Dublin, Ireland during 21 May- 20 June 2015 as an Erasmus Mundus scholar under the EMINTE scheme. As an independent researcher, I carried out extensive research in the American literature collections of the James Joyce Library at UCD. My research largely examined how Philip Roth’s fiction in general and his celebrated American Trilogy in particular engages with the idea of freedom, a foundational ideal of the nation, and thereby presents a panoramic vision of America’s triumphs and tragedies. Thanks to Eugene Roche, Assistant Librarian at the Special Collections of the UCD Library, I also had an opportunity to examine the original manuscripts of William Butler Yeats. My mentor Professor Nerys Williams invited me to present a seminar on Roth’s “Biographical Impulse and Fictional Representation in Roth’s Exit Ghost” to the students and faculty of UCD. The talk was well-received and there was a lively discussion on Roth’s fictional achievements and his place in the larger contemporary western literary landscape. More important, I had the rare honor of being invited to the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin for attending a poetry reading session in which major Irish poets including Michael Longley, Harry Clifton and Paula Meehan read out their poems. Visiting the James Joyce Museum on the 16 June, I experienced first-hand the excitement and jubilation that the Bloomsday Celebrations evoke around the world. Overall, I had a productive and memorable stay at Dublin and my gains were as much as cultural as intellectual.
Outside of James Joyce Museum
