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James Joyce and Cultural Geography: The City as a Site of Counter-Memory

One could argue that the spatial readings of Ulysses entered the canon of Joyce criticism in the late 1970s with M. Seidel's Epic Geography and C. Hart's A Topographical Guide which provided detailed maps based on the novel and, therefore, paved the way towards further exploration of the link between geography, topography and the city-text of Joyce's novel, i.e. the textualization of real space. The postcolonial and historicist readings that emerged only a decade later tend to link the novel's textual strategies to colonial resistance. My paper will combine these critical insights with the burgeoning field of cultural memory studies. Instead of Seidel’s «epic geography», focused mainly on Homeric parallels, I propose to read Joyce's urban space through the lens of cultural geography, departing from the assumption that the space in Joyce is produced (Lefebvre, Soja) and that memory plays a significant role in its production. Joyce's city- text will be explored as a site of both personal and collective memory, and of counter-memory. Memory will be explored in its close relation to the everyday practice of walking (de Certeau). The paper will provide a micro-reading focused on two episodes: «Lestrygonians», which Joyce himself linked to the art of «architecture», and «Wandering Rocks» which is focused on walking.

: James Joyce, cultural geography, space, memory, cultural memory, counter-memory

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