Geographical Poetics

The central geographical concepts of space, place, and environment can carry significant metaphorical weight. I have previously studied the use of space as a meaning-giving device in James Joyce’s Ulysses – Gerry Kearns, ‘The Spatial Poetics of James Joyce,’ New Formations 57 (2006) 107-125 – and the use of environment in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake – ‘Often Doublin’ in the Green,’ AAG Review of Books 3:4 (2015) 52-56. Here is a short piece  in which I propose that we can find space, place and environment working as metaphors in the final paragraph of Joyce’s short story, ‘The Dead.’ In this piece I look at the spatializing of gender in Patrick Kavanagh’s ‘On Raglan Road.’ In this short essay, ‘Triangulating with Tim Robinson,’ I respond to an edited collection Tim Robinson by reflecting upon the many geographical themes in Tim Robinson’s work. I look at the treatment of borders as in-between spaces in this short talk that I gave in response to Kate Nolan’s Lacuna installation at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin.

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Gerry Kearns, 12 June 2015