His presentation is titled:  “A form for the feeling of being alive and kicking: Chaos and structure in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.”

The presentation runs from 12:05 p.m. to 1 p.m. in room 4274 of Chamberlin Hall.

Reilly is the former president of the University of Wisconsin System and he holds an appointment as a Regent Professor with the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. He also is a senior fellow at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and College.

An abstract for the presentation explains: Right from the start, ‘Finnegans Wake’ subverts the usual order by beginning at the end and ending at the beginning.  Its very title is a spring-loaded word trick. The Wake is perhaps the most complex and unread of all the great works of world literature — and a great joke book too!  We will read it out loud as Joyce intended, and hear how its fun chaos in language calls up profound speculation on life.”