Because I have an active visual imagination, I create vivid scenarios and settings in my mind when I read. Even if I have visited the location of the narrative, I continually reshape and shape my idea of the setting. On the James Joyce walking tour, I enjoyed when our guide read a snippet of the Dubliners in the place where it physically occurred (or the place where Joyce meant for the scenario to occur).  I found myself standing in these places and listening to the guide read while I reconstructed my physical surroundings- imagining the place as if the story were happening around me. Not only did I project the story onto these places, but the physical places also reshaped previous mental images. When I first read “The Dead,” I created a fictive place in my mind where the story ends. My original concept of the place changed when the guide led us to the Gresham Hotel, the actual setting for the end of “The Dead.” This reordering of my imaginary place based on the physical place of the fictive story shows the volatility and complexity in the concept of place. If I have a chance to reread “The Dead” in the future, I’m sure that my memory of the physical place will alter again.

Another aspect of the tour and the Joyce museum that I enjoyed was seeing the small table where Joyce collaborated with his researchers to complete Finnegan’s Wake. The amount of research that Joyce put into his works was incredible and to see the round table and his small room where these works were imagined was a powerful experience.

We found him!

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Poets and novelists. These two words have a myriad of meaning & associations, especially to Irish culture and history. Literary figures are intertwined with the Irish Rebellion, Literary Revival, & an independent Ireland. Exploring the streets of Dublin, we came across an alleyway with murals & quotes from famous Irish writers. It is interesting how often I stumbled on representations of these figures (along with political figures) that fought for & stood for a free Ireland: Connolly’s face painted in a bar window, placards to highlight key places in the Rising, the declaration on display at Trinity’s Long Room & copies posted on walls of pubs.

At one of the pubs we visited, I spoke to a local Dubliner, Paul, about Irish literature. Paul has lived in Dublin all his life & works in telecommunications. He was quite friendly, a little rough around the edges, but he could quote lines/titles from Yeats, Joyce, Heaney, & Wilde. The words of Irish poets & novelists fill the steets, but also linger in the minds of the people who walk them. Although my impression stems from one trip to Dublin & one conversation, I think it is apparent that there is an appreciation & pride in Irish historical & literary figures. Paul also enlightened us in some of the secondary education in Ireland; teachers of secondary education are required to learn & teach Irish. In his secondary school days, he learned Irish but has since then forgotten the language. While we read about the Irish literature, culture & history, I found my short tour of Dublin last night & my discussion with locals a powerful reminder of how the Irish literary & political figures still hold a significant place in Ireland’s modern culture.