OUT of TIME and INTO HISTORY: REPRESENTATIONS of CHANGING IDENTITY in TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY IRISH LITERATURE By
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OUT OF TIME AND INTO HISTORY: REPRESENTATIONS OF CHANGING IDENTITY IN TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY IRISH LITERATURE by ANNE PATRICIA QUINN A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of English Department of English, Drama, American and Canadian Studies University of Birmingham December 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. For Caitlin and Joseph ‘…bring a little noise into the silence, find in others the ongoing of ourselves.’ Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin 1 Acknowledgements I am very grateful to my supervisor Dr Dave Gunning at the University of Birmingham, who has inspired me, guided me, and shown endless patience. Thank you. 2 Abstract This study explores notions of changing identity in contemporary Ireland. It examines the changing nature of Irish identity as represented in works of contemporary literature produced by Irish writers at the start of the twenty-first century, spanning a twelve year period from 1999 to 2011. Drawing upon literary works of contemporary Irish literature published during this period of prolific change in Ireland, the focus of this study is to explore various aspects of Ireland’s social, economic, political, cultural and religious life during this time. Close analysis of a range of contemporary novels by celebrated award-winning popular writers will consider the ways in which each of these writers respond to the interconnected themes of history, memory and belonging to present their perspective on the experience of the contemporary in Ireland. The notion of how contemporary Irish literature reflects the development of Irish national identity in this particular time phase is explored through three key genre studies: contemporary fiction about historical events; contemporary Irish crime fiction; and twenty-first century Irish diasporic fiction. Each of these genre studies is set against concepts of the nation - both backward and forward looking - in the sense that Ireland is seeking both a return to the certainties of Catholic Ireland, whilst also seeking to create a new cultural nation-code extending beyond existing frameworks. Through the frame of these two strands of Irish identity, this study considers how Irish writers are defining possibilities of the future – through perceptions of different moments of the past and present – with boundaries that are continually being redefined. 3 CONTENTS Page: 5-11 Introduction Part One: Contemporary Fiction about Historical Events 12-51 Chapter One ‘Masters of Disguise and Invisibility’, A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle. 52-87 Chapter Two ‘On the Other Side of Silence’, Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor. 88-123 Chapter Three ‘Somewhere there at the edge of things…’ The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. Part Two: Contemporary Irish Crime Fiction 124-154 Chapter Four ‘Contemporary Irish Noir’, Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor Novels. 155-186 Chapter Five ‘Twisted versions of familiar’, Tana French and Metaphysical Detective Fiction. 187-216 Chapter Six ‘Fighting on the side of the angels’, Brian McGilloway’s Inspector Devlin Series. Part Three: Twenty-First Century Irish Diasporic Fiction 217-246 Chapter Seven ‘Home and Return’, Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. 247-276 Chapter Eight ‘He had seen something beautiful’, Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. 277-279 Conclusion 280-286 Bibliography 4 Introduction Trying to define the twenty-first-century novel is problematic. Identifying a set of cultural practices or thematic characteristics in an effort to ‘capture the contemporary’1, is hindered by the problematic nature of the contemporary itself and the speed at which the present becomes the past. Commenting on the difficulties of bringing the present into focus, Peter Boxall refers to the ‘illegibility of the present’,2 suggesting that the present ‘only becomes legible in retrospect’3, thus framing the present by its ‘estrangement’ to the immediate past, and its movement towards the unknown future. In this sense, he maintains that the present moment will always remain elusive to us: ‘because we are living through it, because the experience of the contemporary itself involves […] a certain estrangement from the present moment.’4 In essence, it is the shifting relationship between time, space and distance which fashions our position to any given moment in the present, conditioning our perspective through blurring the boundaries of the past, present and future. Boxall refers to the rate at which this occurs as a ‘specifically twenty-first century speed.’5 The varying ways in which Irish writers have represented Ireland’s shifting relationship to the past, encompassing the blurred boundaries of time and space to capture the shifting nature of the present with such lightning speed is the primary focus of this study. In drawing upon literary works of contemporary Irish literature, published during a period of prolific change in Ireland from the cusp of the new millennium in 1999 to 2011, the focus of this study is to explore various aspects of Ireland’s social, economic, political, cultural and religious life during this time. Close analysis of a range of contemporary 5 novels will consider the ways in which each of these writers respond to the interconnected themes of history, memory and belonging to present their perspective on the experience of the contemporary in Ireland. The works of fiction chosen for analysis encompass popular critically acclaimed writers celebrated for their fiction during this period. In his study of the contemporary Irish novel from 1987 to 2007, Liam Harte has examined the way in which contemporary Irish fiction: ‘strategically collapses the boundaries between the personal and the national in an attempt to capture the fractured, conflictual nature of contemporary Irish experience and to explore the gap between lived realities and inherited narratives of origin, identity, and place.’6 By referencing Colm Tóibín’s observation that, “The Irish novel is intensely related to the body politic.”7 Harte has outlined how each of the novelists he has selected have effectively contributed to an interrogative ‘narration of the nation’8 which has accompanied Ireland’s reinvention of itself throughout the two- decade period which his study covers. In essence, this study builds upon Harte’s premise, and in its more current scope, explores how contemporary Irish literature reflects what Patrick O’Mahony and Gerard Delanty refer to as an ‘international return to explicit themes of the nation.’9 Outlining the development of Irish national identity they suggest that in its current phase this return to the nation is both backward and forward looking in the sense that Ireland is seeking both a return to the certainties of Catholic Ireland, whilst also ‘accommodating itself if somewhat uneasily to social change while seeking to create a new cultural nation-code extending beyond existing institutional frameworks.’10 Through the frame of these two strands of Irish identity, this study considers how Irish writers are defining possibilities of the future – through perceptions of different moments of the past – with boundaries that are continually being redefined. 6 David James comments on the ‘temporally elastic’11 nature of the parameters of the past, suggesting that a given moment: ‘may also have a replenished moment, a phase of re- emergence – in another time, for another culture – through which its promise obtains renewed pertinence.’12 As such, Part One of this study explores the way in which key events in Irish history are revisited, examining how writers have engaged with different moments in Ireland’s past as a means to comment on the present. In Chapter One, Roddy Doyle’s presentation of the 1916 Easter Rising in A Star Called Henry, Joseph O’Connor’s focus on the impact of The Famine in Star of the Sea in Chapter Two and Sebastian Barry’s portrayal of the effects of the Irish Civil war in The Secret Scripture in Chapter Three are all important historical moments which have been revisited in works of fiction by critically acclaimed contemporary writers and which have become what Oona Frawley refers to in a different context as: ‘markers in the cultural memory the time.’13 These key developments in Irish history will therefore be analysed through the spectrum of historical genre fiction; a largely thematic and characterological focus will be utilised as a means to review their relevance in contemporary society and consider the way the past can be reviewed as useful in the present in considering notions of changing identity. The manner in which the past is recycled in the present with such conflicting perceptions is mirrored in the debate about revisionism. Controversy surrounding interpretations of Irish history and their application in everyday consciousness is, as Patrick O’Mahoney and Gerard Delanty state, ‘much more than an intellectual movement.’14 They suggest that Irish historical revisionism is: 7 Associated with those in the Irish Republic who wish to see a new nation code that would build on elements that reflect better what they perceive as the real unfolding of Irish history.15 D. George Boyce and Alan O’Day assert that the nature and responses to ‘revisionism’ vary over time and between communities, utilising the term ‘present-mindedness’ as a ‘coded phrase for history with a purpose, a political purpose meant to change, not uphold, current existing ideologies or institutions.’16 Essentially, in A Star Called Henry, Roddy Doyle re-presents events in accordance with the reinvention of his protagonist.