Irish Expatriatism, Language and Literature

The Problem of English
Softcover Nachdruck of the original 1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-3-030-07112-7
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 228 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 311 g

Reihe: New Directions in Irish and Irish American Literature

This book examines how Irishness as national narrative is consistently understood ‘from a distance’. Irish Presidents, critics, and media initiatives focus on how Irishness is a global resource chiefly informed by the experiences of an Irish diaspora predominantly working in English, while also reminding Irish people ‘at home’ that Irish is the 'national tongue'. In returning to some of Ireland’s major expat writers and international diplomats, this book examines the economic reasons for their migration, the opportunities they gained by working abroad (sometimes for the British Empire), and their experiences of writing and governing in non-native English speaking communities such as China and Hong Kong. It argues that their concerns about belonging, loneliness, the desire to buy a place ‘back home’, and losing a language are shared by today’s generation of social network expatriates.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Sullivan, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literatursoziologie, Gender Studies
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Irische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. Swift: The Irish expat ‘at home’ with “our language”.- 3. Goldsmith: The Irish expat in London as “Chinaman”.- 4. Irish expat empire builders in China and Hong Kong: Robert Hart and John Pope Hennessy.- 5. Yeats: The expat buys property back home.- 6. Joyce: The expat and the ‘loss of English’.- 7. Bowen: the unspeakable loneliness of the Anglo-Irish expat.- 8. Boland: can the expat find a ‘home’ in language?.- 9. A Forgotten Irish Cosmopolitanism: Goh Poh Seng’s Ireland.- 10. Social Network Expatriatism and new departures in John Boyne and Donal Ryan.

Über Autor(innen)

Michael O’Sullivan is Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has worked for universities in Ireland, the UK, the US, Japan and Hong Kong. He has published widely in Irish Studies and in the humanities. Recent books include The Humanities and the Irish University and The Incarnation of Language: Joyce, Proust and a Philosophy of the Flesh.