Ulysses for Beginners

Introduction

This website project is proffered as an unpretentious piece of artgeographical research into some of the Dublin haunts James Joyce chronicles in his Ulysses.

We present locations and maps of 1904 Dublin alongside present-day (2004-2005) photos and maps. The locations we have chosen to highlight are those which feature the main Ulysses characters.
Dots on the two maps (Dublin centre and Dublin outskirts) indicate the episode numbers and names, and you will find a link to the episodes/locations list at the bottom.

James Joyce, Ulysses. Shakespeare and Co., Paris 1922

The idea to make an artgeographical trip to Dublin, with James Joyce’s Ulysses forming the backdrop, was forged some years ago. We were already familiar with “Joyce for Beginners” by David Norris and Carl Flint (1994). This book, consisting of excellent comic drawings by Carl Flint combined with text fragments from James Joyce’s books, presents, in an inventive and playful way, some of the sites in Ireland - in Dublin, in particular - where Joyce’s stories are set.
Using the book as our starting point, we thought it would be interesting to examine more deeply the real sites where the events in Ulysses were depicted. In addition, we found more useful information in two other books: “The Ulysses Guide” by Robert Nicholson (which, through its maps and detailed directions, leads Joyce fans to the locations described in Ulysses) and “James Joyce Reflections of Ireland” (which contains beautiful visual material of the actual Dublin locations).

Erik Strik used these 3 books for his serial of 18 collages, based on the 18 episodes of Ulysses. These collages served as the backbone for our first research on location in Dublin in 2004. The recently published book by Ian Gunn and Clive Hart: “James Joyce’s Dublin: A Topographical Guide to the Dublin of Ulysses”, together with the results of our second field trip to Dublin, provided us with enough material for our new website project “Ulysses for Beginners”.

In Ulysses, James Joyce narrates the events of a single day – June 16, 1904 – a day distinguished by its utter normality on the one hand, but, on the other hand, a day which was of particular personal significance for Joyce as it was the day he had his first rendezvous with his future wife, Norma Barnacle. Joyce entrusts his central roles in Ulysses to Leopold Bloom, a somewhat insignificant salesman and to Stephen Dedalus (Joyce’s alter ego), a reluctant teacher at a boys’ school. Bloom is the modern-day, comic, realist anti-hero version of the epic hero Odysseus, whilst Dedalus epitomizes Telemachus, the son who goes in search of his wandering father Odysseus. Stephen Dedalus dominates the first 3 chapters of Ulysses, and the book opens with Stephen in Buck Mulligan’s Martello Tower.

Bloom’s wife, Molly equates to Odysseus’ wife, faithful Penelope awaiting the hero’s return (except Molly is far from faithful – she is having an affair with Blazes Boylan!).

In Ulysses, the full gamut of human experience is crammed into the accordion-folds of this single day upon which Dedalus and Bloom go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of unforgettable Dubliners.
 
Stephen, Bloom and Molly are the the three main characters in this website project.

James Joyce was very precise in his mind as to the exact locations he wished to use for each scene depicted in Ulysses. Dublin has obviously changed considerably since 1904, but those Joyce fans wishing to follow the route of the book’s actions will be able to find their way easily, even though a century separates them from the original locations.
 
Number 7 Eccles Street has gone, but is marked by a plaque featuring a fragment of text from episode 17. Barney Kiernan’s pub is not longer. The Freeman’s Journal office has long since disappeared, as has Bella Cohen’s brothel. Much, however remains.

Joyce first left Dublin with Nora Barnacle in 1904, and after 1912 never returned there. Yet, for the entire span of his 28 years lived in exile, he wrote only about Dublin.

James Joyce and family in Zurich 1915

Joyce embarked upon Ulysses at the end of 1914 and the beginning of 1915 in Trieste, and by June 1915 his outline was complete. On June 30, 1915 Joyce moved to Zurich with Nora and their 2 children and it was there in Zurich that Joyce wrote the greater part of Ulysses. He finished the remainder in Paris, where he and his family took up residence in the summer of 1920.

The Little Review, Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap

Between March 1918 and December 1920 excerpts of Ulysses appeared in The Little Review, an American magazine published by Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap.
At the end of 1921, the French writer Valéry Larbaud gave a lecture in Paris about Ulysses. To anchor the novel’s contexts, Joyce had given Larbaud a sketched outline which bestowed upon each Ulysses episode a title drawn from an episode or a character from Homer’s Odyssey. Initially useful as a structuring device, Joyce nevertheless decided to remove the Homeric titles in his finished version. However we still use them today.

James Joyce and Sylvia Beach, 1922

In 1920 Joyce met Sylvia Beach. She had opened up a book shop the year before called Shakespeare and Company at 12 rue de l’Odéon. In April 1921 she proposed publishing Ulysses in France and Joyce agreed at once. Ulysses was published on Joyce’s 40th birthday: February 2, 1922.
(see also our project Dada-James Joyce-Dada)

Every year more and more Joyceans come to Dublin to follow the Bloomsday trail and to relate Joyce’s text to landmarks, both past and present.


Nico Hemelaar, Jan Zeven
with heartfelt thanks to Erik Strik and Karen Whitburn (translation).