The Remapping Of Ireland And Reestablishment Of Irish Nationality:A Postcolonial Study Of The Selected Novels Of Moore,Deane,and O' Neill

Twenty-three Irish authors have won or been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for fiction within the last forty years.The majority of the novels are related to the independence from England.Ireland has won economical independence since it achieved freedom from the British rule,yet the colonialism is still detected in the country's culture.This dissertation examines postcolonial themes,such as nationality,Identity,language,race,and culture,in contemporary Irish novels.Particularly,this dissertation aims to reveal how three recent Irish novels,Lies of Silence(1990)by Brian Moore,Reading in the Dark(1997)by Seamus Deane,and finally At Swim,Two Boys(2001)by Jamie O'Neill connected to postcolonial studies.The major issue is that these Irish writers totally reject to live under the United Kingdom which makes them rather English not Irish.They also undermine any British power,in terms of politics,language,religion and culture,on Irish people by emphasizing that Ireland has its own nationality,language and culture;to be an Irish is to be in Ireland and speaks Irish language.These novels display themes common in the works of writers from nations that suffered from colonization in their histories,including the loss of identity,the construction of the self through narration,the problematic relationship to Ireland as a motherland,the need to re-write familial and personal history from an Irish perspective,the challenges of using English,an imposed language,to construct identity,and the current political and religious issues that Ireland has been through.It is quite valuable for critics to identify the postcolonial traits present in Irish works in order to better understand Irish literature itself,as well as the conflicts that the country's citizens continue to face today.I will also analyze the effects of the British remapping of Ireland from a postcolonial theoretical angle,focusing on its most invasive and lasting consequence,the replacement of the native language and its cultural repercussions.The issues of "nationality","self-identity","religious conflict" and "politics" are the essence of the writings of Irish novelists.Whether these issues,which are addressed in the novels,are going to be solved in Ireland is a question which has been argued for a long time.These novelists,Moore,Deane,and O'Neill deal with the situation from their own perspectives,focusing on different,particular,historical times,and have presented societal issues and the tiredness of people under the colonial rule of the British Empire.Postcolonialism is one of the most important theories in contemporary literary criticism,thus this research aims at applying the theory into the selected novels in order to clarify the current issues of identity,religion,race,and politics and their impact on the Irish people.These novels capture the moment in the history of Ireland when the British,in a clear sign of imperial dominance,initiated the remapping and reestablishing of the Irish territory.The British also generates a linguistic uncertainty that eventually led to the capitulation of the Gaelic language and placed the colonizing tongue,English.Chapter One gives an introduction about Irish literature in relation to postcolonial studies,especially the three works under discussion It also provides a literature review of previous studies of the chosen novels.Finally,it explains the methodology of this study and the contents of the dissertation.Chapter Two is devoted to the analysis of Lies of Silence.The novel exhibits the division among Irish people due to religious and political disputes,and the futility of Irish opposition represented by IRA.It suggests an alternative solution to Irish identity crisis,that is,to redefine Irish identity through a national language.Chapter Three deals with the second chosen novel,Reading in the Dark.It focuses on Deane's perspective in the search of Irish Identity and Irishness with an effort to regain nationalism through Irish language.Chapter Four is about the last novel,At Swim Two Boys.This novel approaches the Irish issues,such as culture,politics,Irish nationalism and language,in a rather different way.Unlike the previous two works,it is targeted at the issue of nationalism.Traditionally,Irish nationalism is linked to martyrdom,the novel on one hand exhibits Irish national martyrdom,but,on the other,demystifies it and suggests cultural nationalism as an alternative path.Chapter Five concludes the dissertation which summarizes the previous discussions and restates the major arguments given in the dissertation.It also gives further studies on the selected contemporary Irish novels.This research attempts to reveal the significance of the Irish novels from the postcolonial perspective,yet they have not received due critical attention prior to this study,especially in relation to postcolonialism.It is hoped that the research will help to reassure their position as a classic both in Irish literature and in postcolonial literature.