11/3/24 Niels Caul

South Dublin’s Literary Heritage: Joyce, Beckett, and Beyond

by Dr. Niels Caul

James Joyce and Samuel Beckett’s early lives were largely spent south of the river Liffey and they both immortalised Dublin’s coastal suburbs in their work. The authentic representation of Irish life and Irish places were a crucial facet of the Irish Literary Revival’s broader project of articulating an Irish cultural identity to the world. From initial stirrings of the Revival in the 1880s, predecessors of Joyce and Beckett felt the same artistic impulse to depict Irish life as they saw it. This talk explored not only the representation of the landscape of South Dublin and its localities in Irish literature, but also various Irish authors’ personal relationships to these places with particular emphasis on Joyce. 

Dr. Niels Caul has lectured at UCD since 2018. He has curated the exhibition “Revolutionary Dublin’s Literary Networks: C.P. Curran, Helen Laird, and James Joyce’s Ulysses” in UCD’s Special Collections and “Literary Cities: Edinburgh” in Museum of Literature Ireland, has essays in George Egerton, Terra Incognitas: Critical Essays and Centripetal/Centrifugal James Joyce, and has presented at international conferences and symposia.