Making Culture Bloom

Main Article Content

Iain McCalman

Abstract

On 16 June 1904, exactly one hundred years before the establishment of CHASS, an Irish Jew of Hungarian extraction called Leopold Bloom set off on a twenty-four hour perambulation around the streets and bars of Dublin. This fictional incident is the basis of James Joyce’s Ulysses, the greatest novel of modern times. It has also given rise to Bloomsday, a kind of Irish literary holy day celebrated in cities all around the world. It was a specially appropriate moment for us to celebrate the birth of our new peak body, because Bloomsday provides a perfect parable for why the Australian public and government should cherish our sector.

Article Details

Section
Provocations (Peer Reviewed)
Author Biography

Iain McCalman, Australian National University

IAIN MCCALMAN is Immediate Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and Federation Fellow jointly at the ANU’s Humanities Research Centre and Centre for Cross-Cultural Research. His most recent book, The Seven Ordeals of Count Cagliostro, explores the life of the infamous eighteenth-century alchemist, magician and freemason.