Mapping the Unmappable Dublin: The Breakdown of Space and Place in James Joyce’s “Two Gallants”

By defining space as the physical location itself and place as a way in which space is socially, culturally, politically, and historically organized, this paper argues that James Joyce’s “Two Gallants” does not simply signify the paralytic and colonial situation of Dublin. Whereas the anglicized streets and buildings shows that the space of Ireland and the place of England are unified, the unnamed street and the shop connotes that the unification of the Irish space and the British place comes apart. Moreover, with the shop’s white letters and Lenehan’s food (the green peas and the orange ginger beer), which can be understood as the Irish flag, Joyce hopes to override the place of the British, therefore reattaching the space of Ireland to the place of Ireland.