Everything You Don't Know About Joyce

As part of this year's Bloomsday celebration, the Serbian Cultural Society "Prosvjeta" - Subcommittee Pula is organizing the meeting "Everything You Don't Know About Joyce", which will be held on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the Pula City Library (Kandlerova 39).

The guest of the evening will be Vladimir Petrović, editor of the Akademska knjiga publishing house from Novi Sad, a researcher of literary history and an expert in the life and works of James Joyce. Petrović is already known to the Pula audience for his notable presentation of the autobiography of the painter Vlaho Bukovac, when he attracted great attention from the audience with his storytelling talent and interesting historical insights.

What is the connection between James Joyce and Ivan Meštrović? How did he first come into contact with film art in Pula? Why was he convinced that a Slovenian woman he had been friends with during his stay in Pula was in love with him? How did he translate the poems of William Butler Yeats with the Serb Nikola Vidaković? And what does Archduke Franz Ferdinand's driver have to do with Joyce?

Vladimir Petrović will talk about these and many other lesser-known episodes from the life of the great Irish writer, placing special emphasis on Joyce's connections with Slavic people and the period he spent in Pula and Trieste. The audience will have the opportunity to get to know Joyce from a completely different angle – not only as the author of "Ulysses", but also as a man whose life was intertwined with numerous personal, cultural and historical stories of this area.

The conversation will be moderated by Doctor of Literature Vito Paoletić, an English and German scholar, translator and cultural worker, a long-time promoter of literature and intercultural dialogue.

The program is funded by the City of Pula and the Council for National Minorities of the Republic of Croatia. Admission to the lecture is free.