Sciknow Publications Ltd. OJSSR 2014, 2(1):17-22 Open Journal of Social Science Research DOI: 10.12966/ojssr.03.02.2014 ©Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) The Reflection of Urban Identity in Novel: A Case Study of Dublin in James Joyce’s Dubliners Behrooz Mahmoodi Bakhtiari 1,* , Negin Sajadi 2 1 Associate Professor, Department of Performing Arts, University of Tehran 2 MA Graduate of English Literature, Kharazmi University, Tehran *Corresponding author (Email: mbakhtiari@ut.ac.ir) Abstract - City, a place in which many historical and social events transpired, is in close touch with literature. This article tries to study the reflection of urban identity in James Joyce‟s Dubliners within the frameworks provided by Kevin Lynch (1984) and (1960). Lynch (1984) defines identity as the extent of which people could identify an environment and made it unique. He has argued that there was a bilateral relationship between the images of city and observer; he suggested that place identity and personal identity were in close contact with each other, so urban identity could be identified in place. In surveying form and the images of Joyce‟s Dublin, Kevin Lynch‟s “theory of urban form‟‟ (1960) and “theory of good city‟‟ (1984) were applied. And also according to the fact that personal identity is dependent on human capitals, Pierre Bourdieu‟s (1977) concepts of “capital‟‟, “habit‟‟, and “field‟‟, that are effective in shaping urban identity, in his t heory of power and practice was used. Keywords - Dublin, Identity, Urban, City, Image 1. Introduction The main aim of this study is to survey the reflection of urban identity of Dublin in James Joyce‟s Dubliners based on Kevin Lynch‟s and Pierre Bourdieu‟s theories, which has not been regarded in latter studies of Dubliners. Identity, according to Webster‟s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, is “the distinguishing character or condition of a person or a thing‟‟. Lynch (1984: 131) believes that “identity is the extent of which a person can recognize or recall a place as being distinct from other places, as having a vivid, or unique, or at least a particular, character of its own‟‟. He suggests that “place identity is closely linked to personal identity‟‟ (ibid: 132), thus urban identity can be manifested through this connection. Urban identity is influenced by the space-structure. The importance of place identity is mentioned by Relph (1976:147) in the book Place and Placelessness: “A deep human need exists for associations with significant places. If we choose to ignore that need, and follow the forces of placelessness to continue unchallenged, then the future can only hold an environment in which places simply do not matter. If, on the other hand, we choose to respond to that need and transcend placelessness, then the potential exists for the development of an environment in which places are for man, reflecting and enhancing the variety of human experience‟‟. Also Walmsley (1988:64) believes that what happens in the city is in line with the urban identity, he suggests that “...human intent and action ascribe meaning and transform empty space into experienced place...with their values and actions‟‟. Harold Bloom (2005) in the introduction of Bloom’s literary places writes that the presence of city in novels has a long background, and dates back to ancient Alexandria. Cities are represented in the works of many authors. There is no separation between the work and the represented city. As Bloom (ibid,ix,x) asserts Athens is not isolated from Iliad, Thebes from Odyssey, London from the Elizabethan- Jacobean literature, Paris from Balzac, London from Dickens, New York City from Whitman and Melville, Oxford and Mississippi from Faulkner‟s works, and Washing, D.C. from political novelists, like Henry Adams and Gore Vidal. In Bloom’s literary places, the history and geography of Dublin, London, New York, Paris Rome, and St. Petersburg are surveyed. Researchers study special writers‟ homelands and the places that motivate them in writing their works. For example in studying Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky‟s works, Woodworth and Richards (2005: 71) show that how Dostoevsky‟s writing is associated with St. Petersburg. They conclude that Petersburg is not just a social setting of his novels; it is the city that its physical features attribute to its inhabitants‟ characteristics. Also Ulla Hakanen (2010) in “Panoramas from Above and Street from Below”, surveys the diaries of two Russian modernist writers, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Mikhail Kuzmin.