Dublin as ancestral matrix: The rebirth of the irish fetus into self-recognition in James Joyce's Eveline and the Dead

James Joyce?s Dubliners depicts the city of Dublin as a metaphor for the Irishsoil. Though self-exiled, Joyce the Irish patriot introduces Dublin to be the ancestralmatrix from which the Irish may be reborn to claim their Irish identity. The dilemmawith Irishness, as Joyce explores, is that the Irish are in a state of denying theiridentity. Mistakenly apprehending Dublin as a city of decay, Dubliners are compelledto desert it. Their impetus to escape from Dublin and its psychological detentionresults in an inevitable loss of Irish identity. However, Dubliners are, shockinglyand almost instinctively, dragged into Dublin, the ancestral matrix, where theyundergo an embryonic state: they are nourished by the genuine Irish blood, andreborn as themselves, with the Irish identity from which they have sought escape.The protagonists of ?Eveline? and ?The Dead? are in a state of self-denial, thusbecoming invisible in Dublin, which causes them to quest for identity. From apsychoanalytic perspective, theirs is an instinctive drive to seek maternal safety andprotection, a reason for their futile attempt to escape into a Platonic and idealizedwomblike cocoon. However, having done away with the anxiety resulting fromimpersonating an alien identity, they undergo `the oceanic feeling? of oneness withthe ancestral womb. This regression into the form of the Irish fetus provides thecharacters with the pleasure of claiming their individuality and of becomingregenerated through an introspective self-realization. Therefore, in Dubliners, Joyceattempts to hold up a mirror to his compatriots to help them realistically visualize andappreciate their actual self, reflected on the `liquor amnii? of Dublin, the ancestralmatrix.Key words: ?Eveline?, ?The Dead?, Psychoanalysis, `Oceanic Feeling?