English 24

Other Readings and Media

Joyce, J.: Dubliners

Description

James Joyce�s Dubliners (1914) is a collection of short stories about the inhabitants of his native city. Joyce helps invent the modern short story as he tries to evoke the mood or atmosphere of Dublin as it manifests itself in the behavior of Dublin men and women. When Joyce wrote, Ireland was still ruled from London both politically and culturally. Joyce�s book is a declaration of cultural independence, as he makes his subject matter the muted lives of middle class Dubliners. His characters are protagonists of their own dramas, but at the same time are shaped by their environment and so part of the larger Dublin story.