lirrrtlscirirc is irr lact still maintained in the work of many contemporary. ;rrtislri rrr\tl
critics, ..... that emer:ged in Irish fiction during the 199Os, all nrorc ol lt'ss rr'llrtt'tl.
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llr('lill)ll()l s ( ) l lll( ' N( ) r ll) \ Vlr ilc ir c k r r ) w l c ( l g i n g t l l c l c g i t i t n a c y o f h i s c o n (('rll lll,ilt t lt c it it t ls ar t t l it s llit it lir lr s ol t l r c t l i l 'f c r c n t p o l i t i c a l g i r o u p i n g s n e e d to lre ittttlt es s c t l it t or r lc l t ( ) Hlir s l) t lr c ll a l t t r r c ; r n d c o r n p l e x i t y o f t h e c o n f l i c t , tlle!'e ca tr be f c w wlt < l woult l v i( iw c v ( 'n t s s u c l t a s t t r e n r a s s z r c r e so n l l l o o d y sulrday in Der:r'y, I{ernernblance sunday in Enniskillen, or the recent omagh bombing as in any way autht:nticated or dignified by the political motives of their perpetrators. 27 -|. O'ConnoL 'Int'oduction' to D. Bolger (ecl.), Ireland in Exile (Dublin: New Islan d, 19 93) , p. 16. 22 J. Banville, Birchwood (London: Mandarin, U9731 1992), p 33. '23 G. Smyth, The Novel and the Natiort, p. Z.
2 )
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The Right to the City: Re-presentations of Dublin in Conternporary Irish Fiction Gerry Synyth
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The city historically constructed is no l f D u b l i n adhered to thi s i rnagi nal lv r ' P r r r ir r ligr n. ' l ' l rc c i ty d e p i c te d i n th e novel s of the ei ghteenth and rr inr ' lt ' t ' r r tlr r c r rl trri c s w a s p re d o rn i n a n tl y an atmospheri c and anthroPololiir ; r l < llvi t r' , a fu n c ti o n o f th e novel i st' s soci al and pol i ti cal ,r li( ' n( lir . llr r t < l i l r' i rrg tl rc n i n e te e n l :h c e n tury representati ons of, D ubl i n l rr ' 11, r rl(r ) ilis urn (' l ri rrti c trl a r s o c i a l ;rn d m oral resonances. Thus, as Jul i an l v lov r r , r lr ir r rlr irs l l tl i rrtc c t c l u t, J o h n B a n i rn coul d refer to' the most beaul i lr r l t ily P it t r r rc ,' ,w l l c rc a s fo r G e o rg e Moore, D ubl i n w as a ci ty of ' rui n l r ilt l r lr : i; t lr ' . r t l l w a s p re c i s c l y a t th i s poi nt i n Iri sh hi story, hor,vever, tlr ir t r c t ; c ' iv c r l c l i s c tru rs e sb e g a n to b e s ubsurned i nto an ernergi ng cul tu lal r lt lionalis l rr, ()n e o f th e c o rn e rs to nes of w hi ch w as to become the clevation of thc rtrral above the urban as the location of authentic Irishness. l+ lreland - organic, authentic, inalienable - had towns; England - culturally decadent antl rnorally bankrupt - had cities. One might admire the Georgian elegance and the beautiful natural setting of the city invented by the AngLo-Irish ascendancy during the eighteenth century, but its spaces, its rhythms, the pace of life enforced upon its inhabitants, all were alien to the Ireland irnagined by cultural nzrtionalisr-n. Antipathy towards the 'squalid mediocrity,ls of city life appeared to have been confirmed by Dublin's post-Union descent into the slurn capital of Europe. So insistent, moreover, was cultural nationalisnr's opposition of 'good' countryside with 'bad' city that it became part ol' tlrc colnmon sense of postcolonial Ireland and, as Fintan O,Toole has argtrt'tl,,/vital to the rnaintenance of a conservative political culture in tlr c c < lr r ir t r v ' . 1 6 ' l' lr t ' r r ot ion o f a fu rr< -l a rn e n t;rll i n k betw een Iri sh i denti ty and the l i r r r t ls c ir ir cis ir r l a c t s ti l l m a i n ta i n e d i n the w ork of many contemporary ;r r t is lr i r r r \ t l c r it i c s , a s w e l l a s i n th e e x p a ndi ng Iri sh touri st i ndustry. B ut i n r t ' ir t ' t ion t o th e d e n i g ra ti o n o f th e u rban w hi ch w as bui l t i nto cul It r lal nalionali s m, th e re e me rg e d w h at H erbert K enny cal l ecl the 'l ) t r lr lir r [ ) ir nen s i o n ' , th :rt i s , th e c u l t o f D ubl i n as a great l i terary ci ty.17 As wc shall see, this myth has fed into concrete divisions which contilrue to privilege some Llses of the city space while marginalizing otltcrs. Again, this can tre linkecl to wider developrnents in the western trrban imagination. As cities suctr as Dublin continued to expand in
size ancl ilnportance in the early years of the twentieth c(lntll ry, tltt' fundarneni:al division between pastoral and counter-pastoral cliscottlst's began to assume self-conscious and mythic resonances for trtatty at'tisls ancl writers. It is significant that cultural modernisrn origitratecl itt pitrt from this division, and rnany of tLre'prirnal modern scenes' tlrat lccttr art rnay be said to trave their roots in througtrout twentieth-century problematic by Bar-rdelaire.18 forrnulated the urban As well as being increasingly the centre of artistic activily, tlre city of the conflicting also becarne a metaphor, 'a dynarnic configuration as a cliscourse Theorized centuty'.re and fears the twentieth hopes of rnodernist art - and especially the which forrnalizes contradiction, modernist,novel - found an important and readily available symbol in the rnoderp city and its ambiguous inheritance. For if it wtts dynamic and exhildrating from one perspective, thr: city was also becoming the dark, impenetrable space of the twenti(3th-century literarY imagiratio.nal nation, the arena of conflict for an increasingly'isol;rted intelligence'.20 Itwas the poet and critic T.S. Eliot who gave the anti-trrbart discourse its force and seminal articulation. If rnodernisrn was an iu't ol' thc disintegrati ng, then' the scene and t he cause of t he clisint egr at iolr it r ccot 'cls[ . . . ] i s the ci tl z' .zl For Eliot , t he gr eat t lvent iet h- cent ur y nlct r ( ) l) olis t t ot ot lly decentred but also deht r m anized, alienat ing t he subiect l'r ( ) t ll t lr t ' t '; , 111's rnoulb- while erlsr>h;rving to col)e with the alienation of modern city lil'e. For if honrc is not what it us':d to be, tkren neither is the cit;r: llc we nt in to to w n a n d r,v a n d e re d a round. H e hadn' t done that i n )/(';lrs. It had changed a lot; pttbs he'd known and even streets were ! j( ) r r c . [ t lo o k e c l g o o d th o u g h , h e th ought. H e coul d tel l you one llr ir r g: I lr c r c w :r:; rn o n e y i n th i s to w rr. (409) lr,xilt'tl irr t lr c ' ir s r r t r t r r bar n pc ' r ' i1t he r y , h o w e v e r , the residents of ll;rrrrrlr,\,\/ll irrt, ir r r r t ' r r s ir r gly s t r lr jc r - t t ( ) l h c w h i m o f t t r i s m o n e y a n d i t s 'l 'l r c s c n s e o f f r t r s t r a t i o n ( (,il'\lirr'tI irr:r t r r ilr r t ' r r lir lis t ir r t r r c t ir t iv c . and in rpo lcrrtt'is t it t r g, lt t ir r t lt c ir r ur l3c ( ) l t w ( ) r t t i d c l l e - a g e c l , r v o r k i n g - c l a s s ilr('il (lirrrrrry Sr ar r t l his l' r ic r r d llir r r lr t ) ) : ; t i r [ i n g f r o r r r t l r c . c a f € o f t h e I L A C ( '('n lrt'irr y ( ) u r t g 1 a d '( 4 2 8 ) tlrc nt ic lc llc ol t l- t c c it y r r [ ' ir lx r r r i l r l c - l o o l r nir r antr no c l c s o f tra v e rs i n g th e c i ty - the pedestri an and the motorizt'tl. V[clcrrrl)trblin is represenl.ed as an inferno dominated by 'ttre ( ( ) r ' r \ liillt r ' < x rro f tfa fl ' i c ' :s 3 tra ffi c ' p a s s i n g' (19), ' screechi ng' (39), ' deafcr r ir r li' ( 4t 3) , ' c ra w l i n g ' (7 3 ), ' rn u rm u ri n g ' (89), ' di sturbi ng' (186), ' crui si nB ' ( : Z lO ) , ' l' lle c i ty th u s e n v i s i o n e d i s l ost to i nhabi tants w ho are not l ) iul ol it s ler b ri c b u t a re c o n s ta n tl y movi ng through i t to and from :; or r r t ' wlr < ' r cc ls e , n a me l y , th e s u b u rb s . A gai nst thi s, and very much i n foyt't'irr't nrocle, -I'essand Mungo walk the streets continually, narning arrcl rrrirl.rlling the fanriliar landmarks of inner-city Dublin as part of the l)roc(:ss whereby they continue to assert their right to the city. Likevvisc, the eccentric wornan wa.lking the white lines in the middle of Dame Street as the crowd awaits the presidential cavalcade, proclaiming 'Ooh ooh, a Lady President' (235), represents a symbolic reclamation of the streets from the traffic. As a New Dubliner, Mungo has access to the full range of received spatial cliscourses, pastoral and counter-pastoral. At various times throughout the novel he experiences both the joy and the alienation to be found in the city, as well as the pleasures and frustrations of a rnodenr rural lifestyle. The trajectory of the novel, however, is towards an unrgsolved accommodation between the inner city (Tess's flat on the Qu4ys), the suburban (Mungo's house in Stoneybatter, Tess's former hotrse in Fairview) and the farrrr he inherits in rural County Wexford. Both characters learn to appreciate and cope wittr ttre actual physical clistarrcc between city, suburb and country, and between the kinds of soc i: r lr ilit y eac h o f th e s e l o c a ti o n s d e mands. Thi s movement prefi gures tlr c ir ir t r ilit y to c o p e w i th th e g e rp b e t w een desi re and responsi bi l i ty lr , lr it : lr is nec e s s a ry i f th e y a re to b re ak out of the cycl e of gui l t and rlclle ntlency into which each is locked, and so become authors of their owrr livcs rather than characters in a range of disabling received narrat iv c s : nat ional -i n d u s tri a l , p s y c h o -s e x u a l , farni l i al . What brings Tess ancl Mungo together in the first place is their marg , inaliz at ion w i th i n th e d o mi n a n t n arrati ves and spati al forms of nroderr\ Dublin. Denied their right to the city, they are forced to fabularte,tor invent stories, both as cornpensation f
ti tty l ti sl t D u b l i n R e n a i ssa n ce : a r t e ssa y ( ) l l l l l ( ) ( l ( 'l tl t l o v e l i s t s , se e F M a cAn n a ,'Th e lrislt Revietry, 1o (spIi[rg l()(.)I ) irrr(l writers" The Dublin and Dublin Tourist lndustt'1': l{e'l'lt't:tiotrs ort Irish and the O'Connor, Joyce James -lWorld of tlrc Itislt h4alc (l otrr.lott: The Secrct in an Invented Tradition' Mandarin, 1995). 32 Quoted in A. Mat'tin, 'Novelist and City: the Technical Chatlenge', l'' 4f thc narrative of her rnortality, the access to conciousness being a form of birth - 'the wkrole world beginning again as it always has to do when a single human being discove4s his or her uniqueness' (72) - while the death of love, a love that had ratified the ' r' onsci ousnes s, awar eness, even vision' t hat Halliday 'had shaken awake' (L72), prefigures the bocly's death. Halliday 'had changed everything in Lrer life and solved nothing' (173)- Elizabettr's London years are a rnediqrn through which the mystery of death which she must now face can be conternplated and intensified, bringing her to the point where 'there were no answers' (737). Exile associates selfhood and consciousness rvith rupture and terrninus. By means of a vicious irony, Elizabettr's return frorrr exile makes those associations final: 'She'd escaped out of London, stre'd not escape out of this' (43). Of course ttre 'this' is not only the fact of her dylng; it, is also the ritualized, repetitive, streltering, collective life of the farnily, the barracks and their environrnent, where a consciousreess of the type of outlook developed in exile is continually invoked but continually out of place, leaving Elizabeth in a state of solitude wfribh those around" her can hardly imagine. Even the strengths of this rndre traclitional, less individuated world, whose value Elizabeth sees quite reaclily even if she does not always feel tkrem quite so readily - may be perccivecl in a new and rrore revealing perspective througtr the lens of exile. A comparable use of exile to heighten, sharpen and suggest criticirl narrative tensions rnay be observed in The Lonely Passiort of ltulillt Heanrc. Here, a more overtly comparative connection is establishecl between exile and dornicile in the relationship between Juditl-r Hearnc. and -Iarnes Madden. Repressed, respectable, religious Judith fir-rcls l-re.r counterpart in Madden, a 'sadistic sensualist and bully',1o who thinks of religion in terms of the castr nexus from which all his values clerive: 'Religion was insurance'.r1 Ttre temporary and groundless nature of this relationship rnakes a decisive contribution to the overall sense of how transient and impersonal the idea of home becornes during the course of the novel, emphasizing what misfits both these characters really are. Neither of thern, trowever, can see beyond the fantasies gach hzrs This failur-e developed about the objectives of ttre relationship. potential, while at the same time obviously lirnits the relationship's highlighting how similar Madden and Judith are in their social isolation and spiritual emptiness. Judith turns out to be no rnore at horne in Belfast ttran Madden, and her subsequent realization that slrcr has mi sunderstood the char act er and pur pose of t heir going ( ) ut t ( ) gct [ ] cr precipitates her psychological collapse. Her various transgr'(,,ssivr,socilrl
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r.r P r t , : : , ir ) n\ ( , 1 l rt,r s c rrs c ()[ c l i s l o c a ti o n ;rn d di sori entati on- compri :;e an u n( ( ) r r t r ollt ' t l rt' i t' r l i o rr o l Irc r l l e l ta s t v vorl d as forceful i u i ts w ary as NI ; r r lt l, ' nlslx r ir r t t' rl s rru l r, ' Wl ro ' c l s ta y i n Ir el and, unl ess he hacl to?' (115). Nt ' v r , rt lr t , lt ' s s ,i l i V l ;rtl c l c rr'sst()ry i s u l ti n ra tel ;.- ' paral l el to, though di tfert'rr l lr or r r , lr r t lit l r' s ' ,r' tl ri s i s p a rtl y tl e c a u l ;e a qual i tati vel y di fferent set of t'rr r plr r s ( ' s iuis t ' o trt o l l ri s r()l e i n c ()mp a ri son to those to r' vhi ch Judi th' s l rt ' lt ir v ir ) ( lr l' , iv ( ' s ri s t' . M i ttl c l c tl ' s rl a te ri a l i s rn, hi s opportuni sm, hi s readi n ( ' \ s l' ) ( , \ l) loil tl rt' v rrl n t' r' i rl ri l i ty < ;f rc th e l r (asreveal edi nhi ssexual abuse o l Nl, r r r ' t lr t ' r r r ;ri rl ),l ri s c ru s s i rrfo rrn a l i ty , al nd hi s unpol i shed speech conrt i lr r lr , r r lr ' 1' , r c t' o lr ()i rrs c n (' :;s a n c l v rrl g a ri t y w hi ch persuadesJudi th rvhen l l r r ' \ , lir r l nr t . r ,l tl rl rt ' s trl c l y h c ' s a rr Amr:ri catt' (2O). Moreover, Madden l rr, ir r l' ,' , , , , lr ili, s o rrr:rl c ' (2 4 ) c < .rn fi rrn sh e r i rnpressi on of Lri s forei gnness, n o t ll r r r c r r liorr l ri s ' y c l l o w ti e w i th l v h i te gol f bal l s on i t, a sui t of some l )r( ) \ ^r r : r ll< v s lr rl l ' l i l < c s h a n tu n g ' a n d ' th a t bi g bl uestone ri ng' (2O). lr r it i; r lly , lr r t . l i tl r s r,rc c u rn b sto th e ro rn .r nti c fantasy that Madden rnust l rc ir r r / \ r r r c r ic .rrl h o te l i e r, a n d g o e s o u t w i th tri m on that basi s. Y et vz lr c r r s lr c dis co v c rs th a t h e ' s ' a d o o n rra n, a l acke)' , a servant/ (81-2), she ciings to her need of him by the even more dangerous delr"rsion that lris Alnericanness can be made t() seem irrelevant. On the one har-rcl,shc mLrses, 'if we went to Arnericct t t ot t clt t 'cl lr y hirn. The fact of et'asure is ineffaceable, which confirtns itt' rcrttotcttr-'ss. It is as though the solernn rite of the performanr:e hns creatccl s()lnething rvith the durability and distinctiverless of the acsthetic. lt is as tirough the exile has finally managed to articulate his diffcrellce by the only means possible, that of acting it out. Irr IaniCochlane's trvo London nowels, Laclybircl in n Loorty Birt 1L978) and The Slipstreant (1983), the ethos of the ncte' gratuite which gives 'Last Rites' its subversive perspective on exile is rnuch rnore in evitlenr:€, but it is also rnuch rnore problematic. In both novels the cleli"heratenesswith whictr Jordan's prot;agonist acts is replaced by c:onfusioil, wh-ile the self-consciousness of ritual p;ives way to the selfprotagollists cotne to ridicule 'of farce. Cochrane's two youthful I-onclon from lrlorthern Ireland without an.y idea of what is itr stt>rc l.ttr thenr, a state of innocence to u/irich the capital ensLrrcs thcv arc Ilo[ entitlecl and which they strive lvilly-nilly trl maintailr. I v ir r 1i,l) ln u rrrl (l l ra l l o ttc to u c l t o n a pri mal real m, express needs r. v lr ic lr c ' x i: ; t nro rc s tro rrg l y th a n e i th e t: personal or col l ecti ve hi .stor)' , p ellr r ps lr c r ' ; r r rs cIro tl r ty 1 ' l c s o f h i s tc l ry cast a shadow on thei r needs: l {r - r t t l, , ' I r aslelt Irc l a l rtl a l ' tc r h i s m o th e r' s death and C harl otte, l vho i s of l 'olis lr lc wis lr c l c s c c rrt, i s ' th i s w ()m a n frorn a l ost ci vi l i sati on' (13:l ). l 'cr lr ir l- r sI or t lri s rc i l s ()n th c i r [o v e -ma k i n g takes pl ace near the sea. ' l' lr , - ' t r llr ir 1 > rr:l c c c c l s .' l ' h ca ffa i l e n d s . The l overs go thei r separate \/il) ' s - ' t lr o: ; c t r a l n s i c l rt l -ri c n c l sth a t e v e nts bri ng and events take aw ay' (4 . 5. 5) .lt i: i llut tl c ' s c a p a c i ty to l i v e w i tL L that transi ence, hi s acceptance o l t lr t ' r r or lc , i l ' rro t n e c e s s a ri L yth ,e m e th od, of exi l e that i s notel r,' orthy Ir t ' r r ' : r r ol r r r c r c l y th e e x p e ri e n c e , b u t th e w i l ti ngness to know and narne i t A 13ir ir r ,t lr r a l i ty s u p c rv e n e s . R u ttl e ' s k norvl edge i s expressed i n tw o vvays I')vcn as a child, he irnagines, (lharlotte 'was feminine, always that, incorrigibly so; and therefor:e prone to change' (168) and 'TLrere arc n() fixturcs in nature. The urrir..erseis fluid and volatile. Perrrranence is br-rt ar worcl of clegrees' (352). And again, the tirne-keeping, horizonrlaking, protean sea comes to mind, at whose margins the lovers sublirnate the duality ttrat makes them a couple. Not only does Ruttle articulate his alvareness, the text of which he is a subject reproduces it, deliberately going against the grain of the protagc>nist's education: 'Boarding school in the country the Jesuit fiction of the worlcl's order and essential goodness, stretching out ahead like the n'hite guidelines. No' (43). -I'he text itself does not use guidelines or proceed in an orderl)' fashion, blrl. relies instead on delays, distractions, d igr es s ions , an e c d o te s , g o s s i p , re a c l i n g s , on w hat amounts to a comprehensive erwareness ol' free tilrrc. t() be passe
