Post-Colonial Irish Identity in Edna O'brien's the Country Girls Trilogy

“the lonesome sounds of Ireland”: POST-COLONIAL IRISH IDENTITY IN EDNA O’BRIEN’S THE COUNTRY GIRLS TRILOGY MA Thesis in Literary Studies: Literature, Culture and Society Graduate School of Humanities Universiteit van Amsterdam Sophie van Dorst 11037962 Supervisor: Dr Rudolph Glitz 25 June 2020 van Dorst 1 Declaration of Academic Integrity I hereby confirm that I have read the UvA Regulations on Plagiarism. This thesis is my own work and the sources that have contributed to the thesis are fully cited. 25 June 2020 van Dorst 2 Abstract The British colonisation of Ireland, with its cultural suppression and dominating government, has started off a divided and conflicted relationship with Irish identity. This divided relationship remained after the Irish Republic incorporated the Catholic values and traditions into its Constitution. This thesis analyses Edna O’Brien’s Country Girls Trilogy (1964-1986), following the lives of Caithleen Brady and Baba Brennan in their individual realisation of what the Irish identity entails. Moreover, this thesis argues that Caithleen and Baba’s individual realisations of the Irish identity, and what role the Catholic religion plays in this identity, reveal the divide between the rural and city interpretations of the post-colonial Irish identity. Furthermore, this thesis considers the consequences of cultural repression, the power of language, and the struggles of the split diasporic entity, using post-colonial theory to show that the colonial can be used analyse the post-colonial. van Dorst 3 Contents Introduction.………………………………….…………………………………………......4-9 Chapter 1: The Country Girls…………………………………………………….………10-23 Chapter 1.1: The Rural Town.………………………………………...……….…10-13 Chapter 1.2: Dublin……………………………………...………………………..13-17 Chapter 1.3: The Nation……………………………………………………..……17-23 Chapter 2: The Lonely Girl……………………………………………………………….24-39 Chapter 2.1: Catholicism…………………………….……………………...……24-30 Chapter 2.2: The Letters and Aftermath……………………………….…………30-35 Chapter 2.3: Exile to England…………………………………………………….35-39 Chapter 3: Girls in Their Married Bliss and the Epilogue………………………...……...40-54 Chapter 3.1: Married Life……………………………………………….………..40-45 Chapter 3.2: The Aftermath of the Separation……..………….……………….…45-49 Chapter 3.3: The Epilogue………………………………………………..………49-52 Chapter 3.4: Caithleen’s End……………………………………………..………52-54 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..……55-58 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………59-62 van Dorst 4 Introduction James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney. These are names of well-known Irish writers who have riveted and captivated readers from all over the world. Since the 1960s and onwards, Edna O’Brien can be seen as part of this group of famous writers. Her novels are well-known for challenging how we look at Irish sexuality and femininity. O’Brien’s The Country Girls Trilogy (1964-1986) is a work that challenges the restrictive norms of Catholic Irish society. She openly speaks about abortion, abuse, religion, depression – topics that had continually been suppressed by the Irish government whose decisions were often guided by the Christian religion and values. When O’Brien published The Country Girls in 1964 and reflected on these controversial topics, the Irish censorship board banned the trilogy. The ban led to a slander of O’Brien’s work, whereas The Country Girls was included in book burnings to publicly destroy and criticise her work. In this day and age, the trilogy is characterised by how it challenges the beliefs and stereotypes of 1960s Ireland and rebels against the traditions of the Catholic Republic of Ireland. The trilogy follows the Irish Caithleen Brady and Baba Brennan in their lives from country girls in rural Ireland, to aspiring city girls in Dublin, and eventually married women in London. This thesis argues that Caithleen’s Catholic interpretation of the Irish identity, and Baba’s rejection of the Church and the traditional Irish identity, symbolises the divide between Catholic rural Ireland and modern city Ireland, illustrating that the cultural suppression of colonial Ireland and the traditional and limiting Catholic values of the Irish Republic have problematised, limited, and divided the Irish identity. This reading of The Country Girls Trilogy shows the negative consequences of the colonial rule and the governing of the traditional Irish Republic on the Irish identities of Caithleen and Baba. Moreover, this thesis illustrates how Ireland continues to deal with the colonial trauma of its ancestors, since the traditional government of the Irish Republic led to an oppressive atmosphere often made emigration necessary. In the trilogy, Caithleen and Baba recognize that van Dorst 5 they need to move away from Ireland to escape the oppressive and limiting values of the Irish Catholic government. The post-colonial theory of Bill Ashcroft, Helen Tiffin and Garreth Griffiths is used to analyse the influence of the colonial period on the post-colonial Irish identity. Here, the collected anthology The Post-Colonial Studies Reader (2006) and The Empire Writes Back (2002) are used to look at how the trilogy reflects on cultural suppression, the power of language, and the split diasporic entity. Academics such as Jamaica Kincaid, Salman Rushdie and Edward Said illustrate that Caithleen and Baba’s perception of the Irish identity intertwines with both the British colonial oppression and the post-colonial Irish government. Here, the trilogy illustrates that the cultural suppression of the colonial British government, and the Irish Republic’s limiting constitution, have problematised the Irish identity for Caithleen and Baba. The Country Girls Trilogy has recently resurfaced after it was published as a trilogy in 1986. The “Dublin: One City, One Book” initiative picked the trilogy in 2019, re-introducing it to the Irish reader. By discussing themes such as abortion and religion, the trilogy illustrates the rebellion against the Catholic values that have been central to Irish society since the proclamation of the Irish Republic. Furthermore, the trilogy also portrays the significance of emigration in Irish society and Irish identity. In the history books, Irish mass emigration is often “represented as, and often was, involuntary exile: a heartbreaking saga of families destroyed, children lost, and a country drained of its most precious resource – its people” (Cullingford 60). Here, the Great Famine and economic depressions of the 1950’s led to episodes of mass emigration. However, while emigration was often involuntary, many of the Irish had also willingly chosen to emigrate for better economic possibilities. The popularity of Irish emigration was present when the trilogy was published in the 20th century and is still evident in 21st century Ireland, especially with the Irish youth. Here, a study by the National Youth Council of Ireland in 2012 stated that “45% of the Irish population have either van Dorst 6 considered emigration or had a close family member emigrate in the past 2 years. 1 in 10 has experienced both” (McAleer 13). When asked about the motivating factors to emigrate, “the vast majority of respondents stated that they would emigrate primarily because of the lack of employment opportunities at home or in the expectation that they would have better work prospects abroad” (McAleer 13). This research shows that emigration has remained a popular phenomenon, while the necessity to emigrate and leave the motherland continues to challenge the Irish identity. This confrontation with emigration in terms of the Irish identity is a prominent theme in The Country Girls Trilogy as well. Caithleen and Baba see it as necessary to emigrate to England and escape the limitations and restrictions of Ireland. For Caithleen, however, her emigration leads to a constant recollection and fragmentation of her memories of Ireland. The long suppression of Irish culture during colonial rule has led to a divided perception of the Irish identity. The country folk, who had lived in the small towns of Ireland and often only had to deal with the British when their surroundings were anglicised, stood oppositional to the city folk who were more integrated with the British and their policies. At that point in time, the British would visit the rural towns of Ireland to anglicise the names of the streets and lakes. Well known Irish theatre-writers like Brian Friel wanted to illustrate the importance of language in Ireland. Here, Friel’s Translations (1980) portrays a small rural town called Baile Beag, which the British changed to Ballybeg. Friel shows how the English came to these little rural villages and changed the Irish names, dismissing Irish culture and language. Here, Friel’s play illustrates how colonial rule, and the suppression of the Irish language, has problematised the Irish identity. The Country Girls Trilogy similarly reflects on how language is used to dominate the other and, specifically, how language makes Caithleen and Baba question the Irish identity. van Dorst 7 However, while the British were able to anglicise the Irish language, they were unable to suppress the Catholic religion. For long, religion has played an important role in Irish society and the Irish identity, especially during colonial times. As Timothy J. White claims, the Irish never stopped rebelling against the wishes of the British regarding religion, as Timothy J. White claims: The Irish who had long identified with the Catholic Church and practiced Catholicism resisted the British effort to create a national

Load more