Pro Bono Publico: Urban Space in “Cyclops”

This essay examines the ways in which legislation around alcohol consumption in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Ireland was part of a concerted reorganization of public space in colonial Dublin. Focusing on “Cyclops,” the study examines Joyce’s attentiveness to the ways in which changes in the design or administration of public space register deeper political and cultural tensions in the Dublin that he portrays. Spatial and cultural boundaries become intertwined in “Cyclops,” and the episode explores the complicated relationship between space and forms of political allegiance and identity.