'Rus in Urbe': The Semi-Rural Liminal Zones in Ulysses

Abstract: Critical studies of Ulysses have predominantly focused on Joyce's depiction of the city centre of Dublin, with the result that the passages pertaining to the semi-rural spaces along the edge of the city have been relatively ignored. This article turns its focus on these in-between, liminal zones, arguing that the border between rural and urban in Joyce's work is rarely neat and more often porous. Using the Latin phrase rus in urbe — relating to aspects of the urban environment that create the illusion of the countryside in the city — I argue that rural influences consistently filter into the city in Ulysses , creating a rus in urbe effect of their own. This fluid intermingling of rural and urban life is a key aspect of Joyce's depiction of Dublin, adding to the oft-noted sense that the Dublin of Ulysses is more an oversized village than a sprawling metropolis. Focusing on passages relating to the journey to Glasnevin cemetery in 'Hades' and Father Conmee's route to the O'Brien Institute in 'Wandering Rocks', this article argues that Joyce's journeys to the liminal zones along the edge of the city repeatedly upset the received notion within modernist writing, both critical and creative, of the urban space existing independently of its rural hinterland. Joyce's emphasis on the interconnectivity of these spaces complicates the doctrine of modernism being purely an urban artform.