National Identity Of Sean O’casfy In Autobiographies-1880-1916

In spite of the globalization and mass consumerism today which make the nationalboundaries obscure, nationalism based on national identity is still active across the world.The study on national identity is still very significant. Different from the previous studieson national identity at the macro-level, this thesis attempts to study national identity at theindividual level based on the autobiographies of Sean O’Casey. Selecting the first threevolumes of the six-volume autobiographies against the social background of the rise ofIrish nationalism, this thesis intends to study Sean’s dynamic national identity in hischildhood, adolescence, and childhood, exploring how the interaction between Sean andthe family and society constructs and reconstructs Sean’s national identity from theperspective of sociological and communication identity theory and the methodology of textanalysis of autobiographies. Special attention would be paid to how the construction of“We” and “Other” in the ideology of Irish nationalism at the macro-meso level influencesthe construction of national identity at the medio-micro level of Sean’s interpersonalinteraction and how Sean’s national identity is negotiated with other identities toreconstruct Sean’s national identity. The study gets the results that Sean O’Casey isidentified with different cultural and political elements of national identity at the threestages of his life. In terms of the cultural elements of national identity, such as the commonreligion, language, history constructed by Irish cultural nationalism, is identified by Seanwhose religious identity in turn reconstructs his national identity. As for the politicalelement of national identity, Sean is influenced by the construction of the British “Other”in Irish political nationalism and his own class and religious identity. The salience ofSean’s national, religious and class identities is different after the negotiation of theseidentities. Sean’s significant religious identity in childhood, national identity inadolescence and early adulthood and class identity later influences the contents andintensity of Sean’s national identity.