Digging Up the Past: Famines in Irish Gothic Literature Since the Early Nineteenth Century
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)
Department
Literature and Languages
Date of Award
5-22-2024
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify potential relationships between Ireland’s famines and Irish Gothic literature, to build upon past scholarship, and to identify what famine elements are unique to the Irish Gothic genre. This study will focus on how famines contribute to establishing an Irish Gothic genre that does not end with the nineteenth century but continues through the twentieth century. The recent scholarship I will be considering that addresses Irish literature and The Great Famine of 1845 include Christopher Morash’s 1995 book, Writing the Irish Famine; Melissa Fegan’s 2002 book, Literature and the Irish Famine 1845-1919; David Valone’s 2002 edited collection of essays, Ireland’s Great Hunger: Silence, Memory, and Commemoration; and Marguérite Corporaal’s 2017 book, Relocated Memories: The Great Famine in Irish and Diaspora Fiction, 1846-1870. The current scholarship does not address other famines or a combination of famines and what relation they have to the Irish Gothic genre. Scholarship specifically related to Irish Gothic that I will also consider include works by Luke Gibbons, Jarlath Killeen, David Punter, Jim Hansen, Christina Morin, Robert Smart, Jim Kelly, and Stephen Carleton. In this study I closely analyze how authors depict Irish famines in the following texts: Martin McDonagh’s A Skull in Connemara, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Charles Robert Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer. This study also utilizes Jacques Derrida’s concepts of “hauntology” and “visor effect” from his text Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International, and concepts of Edmund Burke’s “Sublime” and George Berkeley’s “perception” to discuss how famines in Ireland continue to “haunt” Irish Gothic literature. Each chapter focuses on one Gothic text and addresses unique elements related to famine. By applying these concepts to the above-mentioned texts, this study seeks to understand relationships between famines and the Irish Gothic genre.
Advisor
Hunter Hayes
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature
Recommended Citation
Jones, Daniel Thomas, "Digging Up the Past: Famines in Irish Gothic Literature Since the Early Nineteenth Century" (2024). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 1174.
https://digitalcommons.tamuc.edu/etd/1174
