Dublin: from "paralysis" to international tourism. An itinerary through texts

In spite of what the title might suggest, Dublin: from “paralysis” to international tourism is by no means a history of Dublin or a socio-economic analysis of the development of the tourist industry in Ireland. It is rather an itinerary through authentic texts aimed at exploring the language of tourism, while tracing Dublin’s metamorphosis from the “paralysed” city portrayed by James Joyce into the vibrant capital city and major tourist destination of today. The itinerary is divided into sections which take five stories from Dubliners as their starting point in order to focus on key issues in tourism. The texts in each section address a topic such as travel, accommodation, or getting around the city, from different perspectives (literature, tourism studies, promotional texts…) thus providing an opportunity for appreciating differences at the level of text and discourse. Activities aimed at reinforcing language competence with particular reference to the tourist sector, as well as specific skills such as note taking, summary writing, translation, are devised for each text