James Joyce The Dubliners - feature article

Hi there,
I'm currently writing a feature article on the 100th anniversary of The Dubliners for a Scottish newspaper - and just came on to get an insight into people's opinions on the work? I studied it in my english literature degree at university, so have my own views on the book - but it would good to see what other people think? Perhaps what you thought when you first read it? Why you think it has stood the test of time 100 years on? If it is as culturally relevant today as in 1914?


Thanks, would be so grateful for any help!

Clare McNeill

A curious coincidence as I'm in the middle of writing an essay on the book. This probably isn't the best place to try and start a discussion though. You might do better in the General Literature section http://www.online-literature.com/for...ral-Literature

It's a very good book and consequently it's stood the test of time because of its naturalistic style, more accessible now than then, probably, owing to the ability to look up dialect expressions on the internet and the sheer volume of material written about it. It still manages to convey a subjective, if insular, portrait of various characters and attitudes as well as an impressionistic sketch of the city itself. Curiously, because various locations/landmarks are referred to so colloquially within the text and one is only acquainted with certain streets, named (or in some cases not) as they are walked or travelled down, the city itself is largely a blank space on which the reader traces lines as the various perambulations are experienced. Very seldom is there detailed description; only specific locations are highlighted, perhaps one house in a street, or a general air of decay as in the description in "A Little Cloud" of 'Henrietta St.' with children squatting in their doorways like 'vermin'. It's cultural relevance today is really more of a cultural landmark and a historical social document. Their may be still some sectarian issues which inform modern discourse, but other than providing a steady stream of tourists for the Joycean location tours of contemporary Dublin, the Dublin of 1909 is not quite the same as the Dublin of 2014... at least, I wouldn't have thought so. I can't say from personal experience. I'd love to get a local's feedback on that point.

I would agree that Dubliners remains somewhat relevant today... but I wonder how many of the political references Joyce makes will be lost on a modern reader not up to speed with the history of the time? At any rate, I put Joyce's early short work in the same company with Capote, classic and well worth reading.

I think Dubliners stands the test of time less for the content of the stories, and more for the way in which they were written... narrative and prose style, insulated and intimate. They're probably more useful and effective as a way of teaching students and young writers a certain way of writing. I doubt today's more jaded readers would enjoy reading Dubliners in the way I did when I was their age.