The Irish Slave
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PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/155659 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-09 and may be subject to change. Famine Traces Memory, Landscape, History and Identity in Irish and Irish-Diasporic Famine Fiction, 1871{91 Lindsay Janssen Financial Support for the printing of this thesis was kindly provided by Radboud University Nijmegen The research for this thesis was financially supported by Radboud University Nijmegen and a Starting Grant from the European Research Council [Grant agreement no. 262898-FAMINE]. Cover Ridderprint BV, Ridderkerk, the Netherlands Printed by Ridderprint BV, Ridderkerk, the Netherlands ISBN 978{94{6299{263{4 © 2016 Lindsay Janssen All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form of by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing the author. The copyright of the articles that have been accepted for publication or that have already been published, has been transferred to the respective journals. Famine Traces Memory, Landscape, History and Identity in Irish and Irish-Diasporic Famine Fiction, 1871{91 PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 29 februari 2016 om 10:30 uur precies door Lindsay Janssen geboren op 11 december 1985 te Mierlo Promotor: Prof. dr. Odin Dekkers Copromotor: Dr. Margu´eriteCorporaal Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr. Frank Mehring Prof. dr. Margaret Kelleher (University College Dublin, Ierland) Dr. Jason King (National University of Ireland Galway, Ierland) Printing: Ridderprint BV, Ridderkerk, the Netherlands CONTENTS v Contents Introduction1 I Research Questions, Methodology and Theoretical Concepts6 II Literary Famine Recollections in Time and Space . 10 III The Importance of Land and Landscape for Irishness . 15 IV Historiographical Demarcations and Structure . 17 1 Methodological and Theoretical Framework 21 1.1 Methodological Framework .................. 21 1.2 Theoretical Framework..................... 25 1.2.1 Narratology and the Formation of Literary Memory 25 1.2.2 Different Forms of Cultural Memory in Irish and Irish-Diasporic Famine Fiction ............ 28 1.2.3 Memory and Space................... 31 1.2.4 The Famine and Exceptionality............ 33 2 Land, Landscape and (re)Constructions of Irishness in Famine Fiction 45 2.1 Aesthetic Modes ........................ 51 2.2 Landscape and Future..................... 56 2.2.1 Landscape: Tensions and Disconnections . 56 2.2.2 Landscape: Continued Connections.......... 63 2.3 Land and Past ......................... 73 2.3.1 Spatial Testimonies to Famine Memory . 73 2.3.2 Land: the Georgic and the Failure.......... 78 2.4 Famine Memory and Landscape on Both Sides of the Atlantic 89 3 Landlord-Tenant Relationships and Rural Temporalities 95 3.1 A `New' Order to Be Born? Feudalism Revisited . 100 3.2 Anachronism I: \[H]ow history repeats itself" . 119 3.3 Anachronism II: The Static Irish Timespace . 128 vi CONTENTS 3.4 Multidirectional Suffering: The Irish Slave . 137 4 The Role of History, Irish Place and Famine Memory in Literary Formulations of Irish Nationalism 149 4.1 Huntly McCarthy and Keary and the Longevity of Trauma 154 4.2 Historical Circularity in When We Were Boys (1890) . 173 4.3 Irish Transnationalism: International and Transhistorical Support.............................181 4.4 Prospective Nostalgia and the Nationalist Reinscription of Ruins ..............................190 4.4.1 Literary Ruins and National Regeneration . 194 5 F/famine Victimhood, Sites of Suffering and Literary Hauntings 203 5.1 Famine Memories?.......................208 5.1.1 Excess, Liminality and Moral Transgression in Fam- ine Fiction .......................212 5.2 Gothic Topographies and the Pathetic Fallacy . 230 5.2.1 Human Haunts in Famine Fiction . 234 6 Emigration: Nostalgia, Exile and Their Contestations in Famine Fiction 253 6.1 Involuntary Exiles?.......................259 6.1.1 From a Choice between Two Evils to more Positive Interpretations of Irish Emigration . 261 6.1.2 Living the American Dream . 269 6.2 Nostalgia ............................284 6.2.1 Longing for the Homeland? Portable Landscapes and Ireland in America . 284 6.2.2 Return Migration....................295 7 Conclusion: Embedded Famine Memories in a Transna- tional Context 305 7.1 Literary Famine Recollections over Time and Space . 305 7.2 Literary Borrowings, Narrative Devices and Techniques . 311 7.3 The Importance of the Irish Land and Landscape . 314 7.4 Exceptionality?.........................317 A Appendix 323 A.1 Corpus List, 1871{91......................323 CONTENTS vii A.2 Synopses of Works of Fiction . 326 A.3 Tables..............................343 Bibliography 351 Nederlandse samenvatting 381 B.1 Kaders, Onderzoeksvragen, Theorie en Methodologie . 381 B.2 Analyses en Belangrijkste Bevindingen . 389 B.2.1 Land, Landschap en (re)Constructies van `Irishness' in Famine fictie.....................389 B.2.2 Verhoudingen tussen Landheren en hun Pachters en Rurale Tijdsbeleving..................392 B.2.3 De Rol van Geschiedenis, Ierse Plaatsen en Herin- neringen aan de Hongersnood in Literaire Formulerin- gen van Iers Nationalisme . 395 B.2.4 F/famine Slachtoffers, Plaatsen van Lijden en Lit- eraire Rondwaringen (\Hauntings") . 398 B.2.5 Emigratie: Nostalgie, Ballingschap en hun Weerleg- gingen in Famine fictie . 401 B.3 Conclusies en Suggesties voor verder Onderzoek . 403 Acknowledgements 409 Academic Curriculum Vitae 411 viii CONTENTS 1 Introduction It has sometimes seemed to me as if every great event, especially if it be of the more tragic order, ought to have some distinctive cairn or monument of its own; some spot at which one could stand, as before a shrine, there to meditate upon it, and upon it alone. Such a shrine { though only in my own eminently private mental chapel { the great Irish Famine of 1846{1847, possesses.1 This is the opening of Emily Lawless' short narrative `Famine Roads and Famine Memories' published in her collection Traits and Confidences (1898). The author takes her readers on a mental journey back to deserted villages and roads, regions once teaming with life, but now depopulated. Lawless laments that the Famine does not have a public memorial, and that it only has a \shrine" in her \own eminently private mental chapel". However, this was not the case, as even during the time of Lawless' writing, the Fam- ine had become encapsulated in several media of remembrance. As early as the late nineteenth century, numerous authors had erected such \mental shrines" and had written extensively about the period and its effects. 1 Emily Lawless, `Famine Roads and Famine Memories', in Traits and Confidences (London: Methuen, 1898), 142{62: 142. Lawless suggests that the Famine lasted for only two years. Today, scholars usually argue that the Famine extended over a period of five or seven years (1845{46 to 1850{52). Some scholars opt for a longer period: Kevin Kenny speaks of the Famine decade, which, he says, lasted from 1846{55. He does this to demarcate the direct suffering caused by the Famine, which he takes to exceed the years in which the blight was actually found in the potato crops. See The American Irish: A History (USA: Longman, 2000), 89{90. In this disseration, the years 1845 and 1851 are used to demarcate the Famine period. This decision is based on the observations made by scholars such as Mike Cronin and Lawrence J. McCaffrey. Cronin calls 1851 \the nominal end of the Famine", and McCaffrey states that \[a]lthough 1849 was the last year for a deseased potato crop, the effects of hunger, scurvy, typhoid, cholera andlow morale survived into 1851." See Cronin, A History of Ireland (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001), 135; McCaffrey, The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America (USA: The Catholic University of America Press, 1997), 57. 2 Introduction Besides conveying memories of one of the most devastating periods of Irish history, Lawless' semi-journalistic, semi-literary piece of narrative fiction has another function: it recognises the importance of sites people can visit to remember events that are part of their cultural memory. These sites exist either as physical locations, as symbolic spaces, or both. Lawless acknowledges the great value of what Pierre Nora was later to call lieux de m´emoire; \material, symbolic, and functional" places containing memories that are of such importance for a people and their self-identification that they should and will not be forgotten.2 According to Lawless, the dilapidated villages and abandoned roads constitute such lieux de m´emoire for the Great Famine of 1845{51. This period, disruptive as it was, should not be seen as an isolated series of events, but rather as the culmination point of a collection of flaws in Brit- ish colonial practice and weaknesses within Irish society and economy it- self. These included the shortcomings of a laissez-faire economic approach, poor land management, an outmoded system of land ownership, the over- reliance on a single crop (the potato) and generally ineffective agricultural processes.3 The Famine was the result of successive potato crop failures, caused by phytophtora infestans,