Representing the Great Famine in Contemporary Historical Fiction

Narrative and Intertextual Strategies in Joseph O’Connor’s Irish American Trilogy
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-3-86821-905-0
Verlag: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier

Buch, Englisch, 244 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 225 mm, Gewicht: 447 g

Reihe: ELCH

The Great Famine (1845–1852) – arguably the most devastating period of Irish history – is often associated with a lack of or even the actual impossibility of adequate representation in historiography and literature. Despite an extensive range of groundbreaking historical and literary research on the Famine in the last three decades, less scholarly attention has been paid to its portrayal in contemporary historical fiction. Proposing a term ‘Famine fiction’ to describe a proliferating number of works of narrative fiction about the Great Hunger, this study examines the still under-researched Irish American Trilogy (2002 / 2007 / 2010) of Joseph O’Connor as a central contribution to this expanding corpus of 21st-century literature. Through a systematic model of narrative worldmaking and structuralist readings of intertextual phenomena, the analysis brings to light a variety of tropes and modes which negotiate and add to the existing cultural database of Famine imagery. Ranging from ballads and revisions of 19th-century illustrations to intertextual networks of female characters, these representations suggest overarching lenses of continuity and hope as alternative, culturally productive interpretations of the Famine narrative. Uncovering how the trilogy inspires recent artistic and activist responses to the Great Hunger, this study takes a major step toward both, acknowledging Joseph O’Connor’s input to Famine fiction, and advancing our understanding of the role of the latter in shaping 21st-century cultural conceptions of the Great Irish Hunger. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................. ix I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1. The Great Famine in Contemporary Irish Culture: Breaking Silences and Joseph O’Connor’s Trilogy as Literary Mission (Im)Possible ....................... 1 2. Joseph O’Connor’s Trilogy and Famine Fiction: Overview of Current Research .............................................................................. 5 3. Desiderata, Central Questions and Aims of the Study .......................................... 8 4. Central Concepts, Methods and Outline of the Study ......................................... 10 II. THROUGH THE LENS OF HUNGER: THE GREAT FAMINE AS A CULTURAL NARRATIVE .............................................. 13 1. The Famine Emplotment: An Outline of the Great Hunger Debate .................... 17 1.1 Political Implications: The Great Famine and the Debate of Blame .......... 19 1.2 Transnational Dimensions: Historical Duty as the Famine Social Debate ............................................. 22 1.3 Inexpressible and Unspeakable but Imaginable? Silence and Crisis of Representation in Cultural Discussions of the Famine ........................................................ 25 2. Representations of the Great Famine from Victorian to Postmodern Fiction ..... 31 III. THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK: APPROACHING NARRATIVE WORLDMAKING IN JOSEPH O’CONNOR’S IRISH AMERICAN TRILOGY ............................................... 37 1. Textual Interplay: Intertextuality as the Object and Method of Analysis ........... 42 1.1 Intertextual Categories: Individual and System References, Markers and Features ................................................................................. 45 1.2 “Making Connections”: Intertextuality as a Method of Analysis ............... 48 2. Picture – Music – Text: Intermedial References ................................................. 49 3. Famine Voices: Perspective Structure and Aspects of Narrative Transmission ... 51 4. Writing History, Making Worlds: From the Revisionist Historical Novel to Historiographic Metafiction (and Back) ......................................................... 56 IV. FAMINE WORDS AND FAMINE WORLDS: FACETS OF STARVATION AND NEGOTIATING THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT HUNGER IN STAR OF THE SEA .......... 62 1. Dickens, Bront? and the Great Hunger: Challenging the Literary Archive of the Famine ................................................. 65 1.1 Hero or Fraud? Deconstructing Dickens as a Supreme Victorian Writer ... 66 1.2 Fragment of the Famine: Transtextual Testing of Wuthering Heights as a Palimpsest of the Great Hunger Literary Archive ............................... 71 2. Pictures of Hunger, Songs of Starvation: Multimedial Explorations of the Worldmaking and Mnemonic Capacities of the Great Hunger Narrative ..... 77 2.1 “Apes and Angels”: Negotiating Irish Cultural Identity in 19th-Century Illustrations ................ 78 2.2 “A Hidden Holy Well”: Mnemonic and Worldmaking Powers of Ballads ....................................... 85 3. Walking Ghosts: Investigating the Portrayal of the Famine through Wandering Characters ........................................................................... 91 3.1 From Ballad-Maker to the “Modern Irish Trickster”: Palimpsestic Worldmaking of Pius Mulvey and the Construction of the Famine Narrative .................................................. 94 3.2 From Mary Magdalene to Holy Mary: Call for Revision and Enacting Hope within the Transformations of Mary Duane ......................................................................................... 101 4. “Farewell to Old Ireland”: Generating Post-Famine Worlds in Historiographic Metafiction ...................... 108 4.1 Evil Landlord and Suffering Tenant: Subverting the Blame Discourse ... 109 4.2 “It can never be written, Mary”: Challenging Famine Silences ............... 114 4.3 “Everything is in the way the material is composed”: Metafictional Deconstruction of the Famine Narrative ............................ 117 V. NEW HOME, NEW IRISHNESS: TRANSITIONS AND TRANSNATIONAL POLYPHONY OF IRISH AMERICA IN REDEMPTION FALLS .................................... 121 1. From Erin to Amerikay: The Narrative Composition and Character Constellation of Redemption Falls ............................................. 123 2. Famine Family and the Polyphony of Irish America ........................................ 125 2.1 The Female Face of the Famine: Eliza Duane Mooney as a Fragment of the Great Hunger ........................ 126 2.2 The Making of an Irish American Male: Challenging Irish Hero Narratives ............................................................ 135 3. As Told by a Mute Boy: Breaking Silences in the Metafictional Life-Writing of Jeddo Mooney ......................................... 148 4. From Irish Ballads to Black American Spirituals: Translating Irishness through Song ................................................................... 155 VI. CURE FOR THE HUNGRY PAST: REVISION, REVIVAL AND STAGING FAMINE ECHOES IN GHOST LIGHT ............................................... 162 1. The Revival Revised: Challenging the Central Figures of the Gaelic Renaissance as Irish Literary Metanarratives .............................. 165 2. Hearing Molly: Imagination and History Writing in the Revisionist Historical Novel ................................................................... 173 3. Acting and Worldmaking: Staging Post-Famine Irishness ............................... 180 4. Famine World(s) of the Trilogy: The Worldmaking Functions of the Hunger Trope ........................................... 185 VII. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 191 1. The Famine Trilogy: The Great Hunger in Words and Worlds ........................ 191 2. Famine Words: Tropes and Modes of Representing the Great Hunger ............. 193 3. Famine Worlds: Effects of Negotiating the Great Hunger ................................ 199 4. Why Does Historical Fiction Matter? The Cultural Work of the Trilogy and Trajectories for Future Research ................................................................ 202 VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 209

Autoren/Hrsg.

Steiner, Daria