Universidad Nacional de La Pampa Facultad de Ciencias Humanas Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras LICENCIATURA EN LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA “Between the past and the present: representATIONS of IRISH Identity in contemporary novels by Colm Tóibín”. TESIS DE LICENCIATURA Autora: María Isabel Arriaga Directora: Magister María Graciela Adámoli Co-directora: Magister Miriam Patricia Germani Santa Rosa, La Pampa 2017 Universidad Nacional de La Pampa Facultad de Ciencias Humanas Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras LICENCIATURA EN LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA “Between the past and the present: representations of Irish identity in contemporary novels by Colm Tóibín”. TESIS DE LICENCIATURA Autora: María Isabel Arriaga Directora: Magister María Graciela Adámoli Co-directora: Magister Miriam Patricia Germani Santa Rosa, La Pampa 2017 Page Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………….. I Table of contents ………………………………………………………………………. II Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….. 1 1.1 The research problem ................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Purpose and objectives ................................................................................................ 2 1.3 Hypothesis and research questions .............................................................................. 2 1.4 Previous research ......................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Description of the corpus and plot overview ............................................................... 3 1.6 Methodology and thesis organization .......................................................................... 5 Chapter I: Context and background theory ................................................................ 6 1.1 The socio-historical context: Ireland past and present ............................................... 6 1.2 The development of the Irish novel ........................................................................... 10 1.3 The author ................................................................................................................ 13 1.4 Critical approaches .................................................................................................... 14 1.5 Background Theory ................................................................................................... 15 a) Space and time as inseparable elements of the novel ............................................... 15 b) Notions on the constructions of identity .................................................................. 21 Chapter II: Space and time as essential axes of literary imagination ...................... 25 2.1 Landscape in Tóibín‟s novels: the sense of place and memory ................................ 25 2.2 Main chronotopes in Tóibín‟s novels ........................................................................ 30 Chapter III: Reconstructing identity in contemporary Ireland ............................... 47 3.1 Place in Tóibín‟s novels ........................................................................................... 47 3.2 Time in The Blackwater Lightship............................................................................ 55 3.3 Time in The Heather Blazing ................................................................................... 64 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 74 Works cited ..................................................................................................................... 80 Abstract During the last three decades Ireland has been undergoing a number of socio-cultural transformations that have given place to structural modifications in its national identity. By 1987 the historically revolutionary and impoverished Republic of Ireland emerged as one of the economic miracles of Europe, due to “The Celtic Tiger” boom. By joining the EC and through the introduction of progressive politics, the former provincial nation started its process towards modernization, which has allowed its inhabitants to enjoy a higher standard of living. However, becoming a global nation has undermined the traditional values on which the Republic had been built, offering new social models and alternative forms of families. Historical revisionism has also provided a fresh reading of the Irish bloody past, all of which has taken Irish people to face unprecedented questions about their past and future identity. As a result, ambivalences and institutional inconsistencies -typical of a period of social transition in the history of this nation- have emerged, forcing Irish people into a process of “re-imagining Ireland” in order to become a more tolerant and pluralistic society for its own people, for foreigners but also for those who once decided to leave their homeland and constituted the Irish diaspora. The purpose of this research work is to analyse representations of contemporary Ireland and the process of reconstruction of individual and national identities, as they are reflected in two contemporary novels by Irish writer Colm Tóibín, one of the most acclaimed post-nationalist literary figures today, in Ireland and abroad. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The research problem I have been interested in the area of Irish Studies since I attended a seminar on the “Narratives of the Irish Diaspora” in 2006 -as part of the undergraduate seminars I was required for my Bachelor‟s Degree course. Since then I have been working on this field as a member of three projects in the Department of Foreign Languages of the National University of La Pampa: “Irlandeses en Argentina: recuperación de fuentes, traducción y crítica” (2007-2010), “Las Américas e Irlanda. Estudios culturales y traducción” (2011- 2014) and “Literatura irlandesa: estudios socio-críticos y traducción como diálogo intercultural”, since 2015. In my previous explorations within Irish Studies I researched on the narrative of the Irish diaspora in Argentina, covering a period between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. For this second stage of my investigation I have focused on contemporary Irish literature in English, in order to analyse the impact of transcendental cultural changes in more recent Irish fiction. A new socio-political scenery has emerged in the Irish territory in the last three decades, characterized by the economic success of Ireland, its incorporation to the globalized world, a low unemployment rate and a greater freedom gained by some groups considered, until recently, as a minority. These phenomena have also allowed Ireland to start overcoming the diasporic period that affected it from the end of the 17th century to the mid-20th century, which left the country with one of the highest emigration rates in history. Within this recent socio-political and economic background, new patterns of individual and collective identity have emerged together with new cultural forms, which clash with traditional beliefs and values. As a result, identity crises and contradictions - common in the confluence of the past and the present- challenge Irish individuals in this changing social context. Thus, in spite of being fictional constructions, novels become the most useful literary genre to portray several aspects of the social reality in which they are produced or contextualized. 1.2 Purpose and objectives The purpose of this research work is to analyse the representations of contemporary Ireland and the process of reconstruction of individual and national identity after the numerous transformations that have taken place in the Irish society since the late 1980s, as they are represented in two contemporary novels by Irish writer Colm Tóibín: The Heather Blazing (1992) and The Blackwater Lightship (1999). The most general objective of this work attempts to determine what intersections can be established between the concepts of identity, time and space/place in the corpus under analysis, and to what extent these issues can be associated to the process of re-inventing itself that Ireland has been undergoing during the last thirty years. 1.3 Hypothesis and research questions Tóibín‟s fictions interrogate the problematic relationship between republican ideology, constitutional discourse and social reality in modern Ireland. For this research work I chose two of Tóibín‟s novels since he is considered as one of the most prominent figures within the literary movement of contemporary Ireland as well as one of the main Irish revisionists of these times. Therefore, my hypothesis is that like many other contemporary Irish novels, Tóibín‟s novels faithfully depict key socio-political transformations that took place in Ireland by the late 1980s and early 1990s, which have had a tremendous impact on the identity of that country. In addition, and as a result of their personal lifestories, Tóibín‟s protagonists have identities in crisis, which are crossed by the identity crisis of the Irish nation. Through my research, I intend to answer the following questions: How do Tóibín‟s characters manage tensions and contradictions while they attempt to rebuild their individual and collective identity in the context of the latest socio- cultural and political changes? What narrative strategies are used by the author in order to represent the identity of the Irish characters as “fragmented”? In particular, what role do place and time play in these works by Tóibín? 1.4 Previous research To my