Irish Expatriatism, Language and Literature: The Problem of English

Description

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-vi Introduction (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 1-57 Swift: The Disgruntled Expat ‘at Home’ Plays with a Language of Racial Othering (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 59-77 Goldsmith: The Irish Expat in London as Chinese Philosopher (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 79-96 Boland: Can the Expat Find a “Home” in Language? (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 97-108 Yeats: The Expat Buys Property ‘Back Home’ (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 109-126 Joyce: The Irish Expat and the ‘Loss of English’ (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 127-148 Bowen: The Unspeakable Loneliness of the Anglo-Irish Expat (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 149-172 Irish Expat Empire Builders in China and Hong Kong: Robert Hart and John Pope Hennessy (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 173-189 A Forgotten Irish Cosmopolitanism: Goh Poh Seng’s Ireland of the 1950s (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 191-196 Social Network Expatriatism and New Departures in John Boyne, Anne Enright, and Donal Ryan (Michael O’Sullivan)....Pages 197-211 Back Matter ....Pages 213-228