Dubliners: Mapping the sportscape in the creative literature of Dublin writers

Abstract

The spatial turn in literary studies has resulted in a greater focus on the roles of space, place, and geography on the page. Intrinsic to discussion on literature is its relationship with space, place, and culture. It follows that the relationship between sporting culture and literature is one in which the representation of space and place are key players. This research interrogates the geography of sports sites in the creative literature of Dublin writers. It considers sporting spaces as those places in which people gather in pursuit of play or for the consumption of sport. It seeks to examine the ways in which sporting spaces are implicated in the politics of memory, and how they serve as literary embodiments of memorial consciousness. Looking at a selection of representations of sports sites, this paper seeks to examine the literary elision of cultural remembrance and sporting space. This work aims to map Dublin using the coordinates of its literary sportscape and to further deconstruct the sportscape in an attempt to understand the significance of its architecture for creative writers. It asks what the implications are for creative writers who pitch the coordinates of sports sites to the page. Much has been written on sport in Irish society and on the sociological aspects of Irish literature. There is, however, a lack of critical research into the relationship between Irish sport and creative writing. This paper, in its attempt to examine the dialogues between sports sites, memory, and Irish literature, is a new contribution to the field.