Discover Joyce’s Dublin by reading and running

James Joyce told his friend Frank Budgen: “I want’ said Joyce, as we were walking down the Universitätstrasse, ‘to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book” (Budgen, 1960, p.67, 68). This paper looks at the relevance of Dublin to Joyce’s writings and of the relevance of Joyce’s writings to Dublin. It is concerned with the virtual Dublin of Joyce’s writings, the physical manifestation of Dublin over time, and the relationships between them. Numerous scholars read and analyse the writings of Joyce without ever visiting Dublin. Is it necessary to visit Dublin to fully appreciate Joyce’s writings and is it necessary to read his writings to fully appreciate Dublin? What can be discovered in Dublin that cannot be discovered remotely? Could you recreate Dublin from Joyce’s writings