London Met Repository

The fiction of the Irish in England

Lists

Tools

Murray, Tony (2020) The fiction of the Irish in England. In: The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Fiction. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 459-478. ISBN 9780198754893

[+][-]

Abstract

This chapter examines the way in which Irish fiction has engaged with one of the most persistent features of Irish history over the last 200 years, the migration of its people to England. In doing so, it highlights how novels and short stories have played a role in me diating the experiences of Irish migrants in England and how writers have used fiction to fashion a means by which to articulate a sense of Irish cultural identity abroad. The analysis demonstrates how, over two centuries of fiction about the Irish in England, there has been a discernible shift of emphasis away from matters of primarily public concern to those of a more private dimension, resulting in works that illuminate latent as well as manifest features of the diasporic experience and its attendant cultural allegiances and identities.

Documents