Reassessing The Grand Narrative Of Irish Nationalism

Colm Toibin is one of the most important and influential writers in contemporary Ireland.Previous studies on his works mainly focus on issues of exile and emigration,women's status,homosexuality and Irish history,yet few of them touch upon the author's reexamination of the Irish nationalism in connection with the issue of the grand narratives.Based on French philosopher Jean-Franc ?ois Lyotard's postmodernist critique of the grand narratives,this thesis intends to argue that by narrating two protagonists' negotiations with their respective memories concerning the Irish nationalist history,Toibin proposes to reconsider the traditional narrative of the Irish nationalism,especially in terms of its exclusiveness in commemorating the Irish history and emphasizes the importance of individual narratives in building a pluralist society.Lyotard believes that since the advent of the human society,narrative has long been the basis of human knowledge and played a significant part in defining individual's identity.Different narratives have to observe different rules,which are also called by Lyotard as "language games," and the organization of the narratives and language games is performed by metanarratives.In modern times,modernity was heavily dependent on grand narratives which depict human progress;however.with the spread of capitalism and the development in science and technology after WWII,the grand narratives were greatly challenged and even undermined.Consequently,the individuals' relatively unified identity in modern times began to disintegrate.In contemporary Ireland,under the influence of the official discourse on the issue of the Irish history,people tend to view the sectarian violence in the past two centuries with a positive attitude,magnifying its necessity in liberating Ireland from the British forces.Both protagonists of Toibin's The South and The Heather Blazing are plagued by their memories of the Irish nationalist history.As a Protestant,the traumatic family history of The South's protagonist Katherine during the Irish Civil War is almost silenced under the influence of the prevailing grand narrative of the Irish nationalism.Her historical memory's awakening process illustrates Cathy Caruth's description of the trauma's features,i.e.belatedness and repetitiveness.Only when the victim narrates and acts out the trauma,can it be cured.It is through her interactions with others and artistie creation that Katherine cures her trauma.In The Heather Blazing,growing up under the shadow of Fianna Fail's strong nationalist ideology,Eamon the judge performs his duties in close accordance with the party's conservative political ideals at the expense of the citizens' benefits.On the one hand,his conservative views on the Irish history and society originate in his Catholic-nationalist family,whose retellings of the Irish nationalist history shape what French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs calls the collective memory.On the other hand,the local rituals and ballads about the Irish nationalist history could be categorized as German scholars Aleida and Jan Assmann's cultural memory.Both types of memories contribute to Eamon's understanding of the Irish nationalism.However,this intimate association with the Irish nationalist past brings negative effects to both protagonists.Katherine cannot free herself from the historical burden even after her escape to Spain;Eamon finds himself increasingly alienated from his family and the rapidly changing Irish society.It is through their active reassessment of the Irish nationalist history that the two protagonists envision a more inclusive future.Toibin's revisionist reexamination of the Irish nationalist history in the two novels originates from his family background and education experience.The strong Catholic-nationalist sentiment in his family shaped his understanding of the Irish nationalism during his childhood,but later the familial bereavement undermined his belief in it;the prevailing revisionism among the Irish academics in the 1970s further influenced his views on the well-received version of the Irish nationalist history.Through his portrayal of the two protagonists9 struggle to reconsider their past,it seems that to a certain extent Toibin echoes Lyotard's idea that only by focusing on the individual's petits recits can human beings subvert the repressive metanarratives N and eventually build a more pluralist society in the postmodern era.