Memory and the city: Urban renewal and literary memoirs in contemporary Dublin

Changing cities lend themselves to reflections on memory, on what is lost and what is gained. Many of the major theorists of modernity lived in cities that were undergoing rapid development. The history of modernity in Ireland is no exception to this combination of urbanism and modernism. Each phase of the modernization project in Ireland's capital has produced debates about architecture and planning alongside literary and historical reflections. We see these debates in the 1960s, during which reforms geared toward internationalizing the economy and society were enacted, and we see them in the 1990s, when a new wave of globalization transformed the urban center of Dublin into a tourist destination and financial hub. Into this mix of gentrification and renewal came a literary upsurge, the updated urban memoir. This paper theorizes the relationship between memory, memoir and urban renewal.