Land Goddesses, Divine Pigs, and Royal Tricksters: Subversive Mythologies and Imperialist Land Ownership Dispossession in Twentieth Century Irish and American Literature by Elizabeth Ricketts A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Susan Mooney, Ph.D. John Lennon, Ph.D. Quynh Nhu Le, Ph.D. Stanley Gontarski, Ph.D. Date of Approval: March 24th, 2021 Keywords: African American Literature, Drama, Postcolonialism, Land Ownership, Myth Copyright © 2021, Elizabeth Ricketts ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is the product of true collaboration from an unbelievable support network throughout my career. I’d like to thank Dr. Glenn and Diane Steinberg, two of my English professors from my undergraduate program at the College of New Jersey (I like to joke that I “minored in Steinberg” due to the number of classes that I took between the two of them) who believed in me enough to support my application to graduate programs after I had been out of college for several years. During my master’s program at Marymount University, I received the excellent guidance from Dr. Amy Scott-Douglass, who would eventually direct my thesis, to “make my seminars work for me” and take the plunge headlong into Irish topics in her Shakespeare course through an interpretation of Troilus and Cressida as subversive commentary on the Nine Years War between England and Ireland. I also had the pleasure of doing an independent study on Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope with the fantastic Tonya Howe, who deepened my knowledge of the Irish literary canon and helped me create a conference paper that I would eventually present at that hallowed American bastion of Irish Studies, the University of Notre Dame. I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude towards my wonderful committee members who have guided me from preparing my PhD portfolio to writing my prospectus and now the dissertation itself. Dr. Stanley Gontarski at Florida State University took a chance on an unknown student outside of his university to offer his guidance and immense wealth of knowledge on twentieth century Irish literature to shaping this project from prospectus to final draft of dissertation. I am also indebted to Dr. Quynh Nhu Le, in whose Critical Theory course I wrote a seminar paper on Brian Friel’s Making History that would become one of my first publications. Dr. Le also guided me through the theories of myth and postcolonialism that provided the critical theoretical basis for this dissertation and generated my unique approach, mytho-postcolonial theory. My thanks also go to Dr. John Lennon, whose Publishing an Article course helped to refine the Making History paper that I wrote with Dr. Le into the publishable article that served as a major component of my PhD portfolio. With Dr. Lennon, I completed an independent study on the American texts on my reading lists, and his guidance in exploring these texts and the related critical conversations created a strong foundation for the American chapters of my dissertation. I can’t say enough about the unwavering support and crystal-clear guidance of Dr. Susan Mooney. There were times when Dr. Mooney believed in me far more than I believed in myself. Dr. Mooney encouraged me to stretch myself beyond what I perceived were my capabilities, especially in applying for the Harry and Julian Newman Archival Research Fellowship, which would allow me to travel to archives in Galway, Dublin, and New York City and add crucial insights to this dissertation. Dr. Mooney embodied the perfect balance between empowering me to develop my original ideas and providing crucial input throughout the course of this project. I am so grateful to Dr. Mooney for her mentorship during my time at USF. DEDICATION I’m going to do that ever-so-trendy millennial thing and blame my parents for everything. Yes – it is all their fault. This whole graduate school endeavor and my entire professional career all started because I couldn’t sit still in church. My mother used to call me the “whirly girl.” My parents were desperate for solutions that didn’t involve horse tying me to the pew. As avid churchgoers, my parents were horrified with my constant squirming and attempts to bother everyone around me when boredom would set in after approximately 0.02 seconds after Mass began. Besides the giant illustrated book of Bible stories, ironically enough, the only thing that would keep me occupied throughout the entire Mass was the beautiful D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. I can’t tell you how many times I read that thing, both inside and outside of church. I memorized the stories of the Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, Fates, Titans, wayward mortals, and the entire cast of characters in the Greek mythological universe. I toted that tome around until I had practically memorized it and its pages grew worn and faded. I can still picture some of the beautiful illustrations when I call to mind certain stories and characters. When I was twelve years old, my grandparents and parents sent my older brother and me on a life-changing trip to Ireland. While I had always grown up with a sense of a truly trans- Atlantic family with Irish and English relatives coming to America for lengthy stays every couple of years, this trip connected me to my Irish heritage and family at just the right point of my life when I was starting to figure out just who I was and who I wanted to be. Even though it would be twenty-two years until I returned to Ireland to present a paper on J.M. Synge at the American Conference for Irish Studies at University College Cork, my interest and passion for Irish culture, literature, history, and music only grew deeper and inspired my focus on Irish and Irish-American literature in my graduate work. When I got to high school, it was a foregone conclusion that I would take Latin. My Latin-Mass loving, Wheelock grammar-toting Dad mandated it for all my siblings. Sure, I moaned about it a good deal, especially since I was already taking Spanish and band as electives, meaning that I didn’t have a lunch period and had to scarf down a sandwich in one of my other classes that took place around lunchtime and one of my kindly teachers (usually English) took pity on me. I was absolutely determined to hate Latin because of this. However, due to my amazing Latin teacher, fun times in Latin Club, and great classmates, Latin turned out to be one of my favorite classes in high school. My high school Latin experience culminated in AP Latin in which we read and translated the entire Aeneid. Here’s the part where I proceed to blame my parents for my entire graduate career, especially my dissertation. During my master’s degree, I started honing my focus on Irish literature, thanks to that life-changing trip at twelve years old. In my research for various classes and my eventual master’s thesis, I happened upon some fascinating conjunctions between Irish literature, literary depictions of English colonialism in Ireland, and the classics, particularly the Trojan War. My in-depth knowledge of the Aeneid and its function as Roman imperial propaganda fueled my interest in this particular line of inquiry, which has become one of the most important strands of my work: the topic of my master’s thesis, the scholarly foundation for my entire dissertation, the subject of the first chapter of my dissertation, the topic of my master’s thesis, the topic of my most recent publication, and the subject of a future book I hope to write. In addition to this experience with the Aeneid, my almost encyclopedia-like familiarity with Greek mythology led me to investigate the ways that authors refashioned myths for subversive anti-colonial purposes. I turned this lens to twentieth-century Irish and Irish-American literature, an area I was drawn to because visit Ireland that sparked my fascination with Irish cultural heritage and my own experience within an Irish-American extended family. Thus, besides my growing up in a household with books and literary discussions aplenty, my parents got me into this happy academic predicament where I now find myself. The further implications of all these decisions for the rest of my life could fill their own dissertation. But, in the meantime, this work will be dedicated to them and their unfailing belief in a squirmy whirly girl who needed to be quieted down with books and sometimes pushed in the right direction. Thanks Mom and Dad – it really is all your fault. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Myth/Ritual Theory and Modern Drama .............................................................................3 Trans-Atlantic Imperial Contexts: Land Ownership Dispossession in Ireland and America ..........................................................................................................................5 Mytho-Postcolonial Theoretical Framework .....................................................................14 Mytho-Postcolonial Analysis: Comparative Reading of Land Conceptualization ............22 Chapter Overviews.............................................................................................................24 Chapter