Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English And
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Masaryk university Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Ing. Olga Martinová Anglo-Irish Relations in the Fiction of William Trevor Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. 2015 i I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources in the list of the Works Cited.. ……………………………. Olga Martinová ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D., for his guidance and encouragement. I would also like to thank my family for the support throughout my studies. iii Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ i 2. William Trevor .......................................................................................................... 4 3. History of Ireland ...................................................................................................... 7 3.1. Ireland before the Union .................................................................................... 7 3.2. Ireland in Union with Britain ........................................................................... 11 3.3. Ireland after Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 .......................................................... 16 4. The Story of Lucy Gault ......................................................................................... 24 5. Stories of the Troubles ............................................................................................. 32 5.1. The Distant Past ............................................................................................... 32 5.2. Another Christmas ........................................................................................... 37 6. Felicia’s Journey ...................................................................................................... 43 7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 50 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 56 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 59 Resumé ............................................................................................................................ 60 iv 1. Introduction The following thesis aims to analyse the depiction of Anglo-Irish relations in several writings by William Trevor and compare it with the actual contemporary happenings in Ireland. The historical background of Ireland for the comparison of the fictions is summarized in the first half of the thesis. Four writings, set in a different periods of 20th century, are analysed in chronological order according to their time setting. The first analysed book is the novel The Story of Lucy Gault, which primarily describes the early 1930s, however, the story spans until 1990s. Two short stories, both depicting the period of the Troubles in 1970s, but each with very different setting “The Distant Past” and “Another Christmas”, follow. The last discussed book - the novel Felicia’s Journey takes place in the last decade of the 20th century. The life of William Trevor is described in the second chapter to both introduce the author and to present some of the topic and themes he writes about in order to find the issues he concerns himself with in his writing, which will be helpful in the understanding of the chosen fiction and the conclusion of this thesis. The basic information about his origin, education and the extent of his work are given there. Several events which influenced his work are described as well. Some of the topic and themes he employs in his works and which could be useful in the conclusion are identified. In the third chapter, some events from the history of Ireland are summarized to provide context of the chosen Trevor’s writings. Since the Anglo-Irish relations were shaped by the history, several of the most important events for their formation are described. The historic terms and figures, which appear in the analysed writings are explained. This chapter serves to illustrate the historical background which inspired Trevor in writing them, as well as a material for comparison of the reality and the way, how Trevor depicts the Anglo-Irish relations in chosen fiction, which is made in Conclusion. In the fifth chapter the novel The Story of Lucy Gault is analysed to investigate Trevor’s depiction of the Anglo-Irish relations during and after the Civil war in Ireland. The description 1 of the strained relationship between the inhabitants of the island in 1930s in the novel is investigated. Since the novel takes place in a quite long span of time, it ends in 1990s, also the change in the opinions and attitudes of the characters and their surroundings in time can be noted from the story. Two short stories depicting the period of the Troubles in 1970s are analysed in the perspective of the depiction of Anglo-Irish relations in the sixth chapter to show Trevor’s interpretation of this time in two different settings, and to try to find the connection between these two perspectives. Neither of these stories is actually set in the focus of the Troubles – in Northern Ireland. Trevor describes the change, or more accurately the poisoning of the Anglo- Irish relations that the Troubles brought. In the “The Distant Past” it is the relationship between the descendants of Ascendancy family and “Old Irish” inhabitants and in “Another Christmas” it is the relationship between Irish immigrants in England and their English friend. The novel Felicia’s Journey is analysed in the seventh chapter for the purpose of seeing Trevor’s description of the Anglo-Irish relations after the year 1990. This novel shows several different characters with very different views of the relation between Ireland and England. Some of them seem to live in the past, still deriving their attitudes from the history. Nevertheless there are others who do not view the relation in the context of the history and hatred. The new generation does not seem to be burdened by the assumptions of the past. The seventh chapter, the Conclusion serves to compare the four fictions analysed in the previous three chapters with the historical context described in the third chapter. The description of the Anglo-Irish relations in the individual writings are compared to each other in order to find some connections. Some of the found connections are inspired by the themes, which are identified in the second chapter, as these, which appear in the Trevor’s fiction. Writing this thesis I used a number of secondary sources. From these, those from which I derived the most are the following books: John Ardagh’s book Ireland and the Irish, which was written after the two-years long survey of the opinions of the population conducted in Ireland in the years 1991-1993 by the author. Aside from some historical data, this book provided me also with some information I 2 could not find in the history books – for example about the fate of the Ascendancy families after 1921, the results of the public pool on the partition of island in 1993 or the public opinions of the British public on Ireland and Irish in the last decade of 20th century. These information helped me greatly in the comparison of the depiction of Anglo-Irish relations in the Trevor’s fiction with reality. The book William Trevor: Re-Imaging Ireland by Mary Fitzgerald-Hoyt. This book contains the analysis of many of the Trevor’s fiction. Some of the themes, which reappear in the William Trevor’s writing, given in the second chapter of this thesis were derived from this book. I also find some of the observation about the books made by Mary Fitzgerald-Hoyt useful for my analysis – for example the peculiarities and differences in the Ascendancy characters of the Gaults in The Story of Lucy Gault and the Middletons in “The Distant Past”, her observation of the characters of Felicia’s father in Felicia’s Journey, r Norah in “Another Christmas”, or the presumed open-mindedness or the English landlord Mr Joyce. From the Dolores MacKenna’s book William Trevor: The Writter and His Work I derived many information about Trevor’s live. MacKenna describes the writer’s live and the events which impacted his writing together with the description of their influence on the stories and the themes he deals with. Some of them, which I found the most relevant for the thesis were used in the second chapter. 3 2. William Trevor William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown on 24 May 1928 in a Protestant family as William Trevor Cox. His family is not of Ascendancy descent – they were not among the Anglo-Irish families of the rich landowners of 18th and 19th centuries. As Trevor said in his interview with Mira Stout in 1989, in retrospective, his descent has helped him as a writer. What is now apparent to me is that being a Protestant in Ireland was a help, because it began the process of being an outsider—which I think all writers have to be—and began the process of trying to clear the fog away. I didn’t belong to the new post-1923 Catholic society, and I also didn’t belong to the Irish Ascendancy. I’m a small-town Irish Protestant, a “lace-curtain” Protestant. Poor Protestants in Ireland are a sliver of people caught between the past—Georgian Ireland with its great houses and all the rest of it—and