John Millington Synge's contributions to the development of modern Irish drama and to the Gaelic Revival (and, thereby, to Irish memory culture at large) are undeniable. Little is known, however, of ...his relationship with Miss Molly Allgood, who was an actress at the Abbey Theatre and his fiancée. In this essay I read Joseph O'Connor's 2010 novel, Ghost Light, as a specimen of posthumous ventriloquism – a work of fiction which seeks to give voice to an elderly, forgotten woman who, in 1952 and thenceforth, after her death, was shamefully deprived of her right to keep Synge company in the collective memory of her nation. O'Connor creates prosthetic memories (which I call mnemofictions) for Molly Allgood so that she may eventually claim her due place in Irish memory culture. Consequently, O'Connor's work of fiction effectively redeems a past whose records were originally censored and tampered with.
Northern Ireland and Upper Silesia exhibit numerous analogies when it comes to their local communities' experience of borders, divisions and partitions. The experience is reflected in recent ...partition narratives which prove that geopolitical and administrative interventions in space and territory are likely to create and define more than just lines on the maps and new jurisdictions. Borders and partitions are felt and endured, often imprinted on provincial memories, both individual and communal. Border crossings, borders in the mind and actual experiences connected with being partitioned and living in a borderland have determined, for the last 100 years, the parameters of what I call provincial memory in Northern Ireland and Upper Silesia, making them markedly different from national memory cultures in Ireland/Britain and Poland, respectively. The transcultural memory of partitions and borders, preserved in contemporary literary accounts of the past, informs the main thrust of the narratives of belonging in both regions. By exploring related examples of partition narratives and attitudes of regional writers to borderlands and partitions, this essay argues for a recognition, in the respective contexts of Northern Ireland and Upper Silesia, of significant differences between the discursive performances of provincial memory cultures and national ones.
Recent works of fiction set in Northern Ireland continue to be preoccupied with the Northern Ireland conflict (the Troubles). Although it is never explicitly named in Milkman (2018) by Anna Burns, ...her hometown features prominently as a crucial signifier throughout the novel. Also, For the Good Times (2019) by David Keenan, set in Seventies Ardoyne, relies for its significance on historical and geopolitical references and allusions. Crucially, both novels address - and discursively perform - the conjunction of memory and borders/divisions. Thus they yield to a reading inspired by Astrid Erll's notion of transcultural memory, highlighting tensions and boundaries within the nationalist community. The general claim in this essay is that both Milkman and For the Good Times contribute to a 'redemarcation' of cultural memory not only in Northern Ireland but also in other post-tribal societies, wherever it is necessary to challenge nationalist or ethno-sectarian narratives about the past and offer alternative histories, inclusive of transcultural, pluralist discourses. Consequently, both novels deserve attention as powerful critiques of nationalist geopolitics and of skewed images of the past in the tribal narratives perpetuated not only before but also after the Belfast Agreement of 1998.
Referendum w Zjednoczonym Królestwie zorganizowane 23 czerwca 2016 roku, a następnie brexit formalnie przeprowadzony na początku 2020 roku i sfinalizowany po upłynięciu okresu przejściowego z ...początkiem 2021 roku wpływają znacząco na status granicy na wyspie Irlandia. Po opuszczeniu przez Zjednoczone Królestwo Unii Europejskiej granica oddzielająca Republikę Irlandii od Irlandii Północnej stała się także granicą Unii Europejskiej. Nawet jeśli z dnia na dzień życie mieszkańców Irlandii korzystających z przejść granicznych nie zmieniło się diametralnie, to powolne, dalekosiężne zmiany zachodzą w samej świadomości Irlandczyków i Brytyjczyków, a także w uwarunkowaniach ekonomicznych i perspektywach społeczno-politycznych po obu stronach nowej/starej granicy. Spojrzenie na jej historię oraz kontekst kulturowy i geopolityczny, jaki proponuje niniejszy esej, opiera się na badaniach z obszaru border studies. Poszerzenie eseju o wybrane aspekty badań nad pamięcią kulturową pozwala na ukazanie interesów i aspiracji mieszkańców terenów przygranicznych, którzy oparcie znajdują we własnej tradycji kulturowej i dyskursach literackich. Celem tego artykułu jest ukazanie wielowymiarowości takiego pojęcia jak granica w okolicznościach zdefiniowanych przez wyniki brytyjskiego referendum z 2016 roku. Optyka i retoryka mocarstwowa, tak chętnie stosowania przez rządzących Zjednoczonym Królestwem konserwatystów, na czele z Borisem Johnsonem, nie uwzględnia wymiaru lokalnego, regionalnego i mniejszościowego. W przypadku najbardziej poszkodowanych mieszkańców Irlandii Północnej (obok Szkocji) status niepogodzonej z opuszczeniem Unii Europejskiej mniejszości paradoksalnie przysługuje 56% głosujących w referendum dorosłych obywateli tego regionu.
The 2016 referendum in the UK and then Brexit itself, formally introduced in 2020 and finalized – upon the conclusion of the transition period – at the beginning of 2021, have significantly affected ...the status of the border on the island of Ireland. Once the UK left the European Union, the border that separates the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland became an EU border as well. Although overnight the lives of the Irish people crossing the border did not change that much, gradual, and far-reaching, transformations have been taking place in the minds of the Irish and the British and in the overall economic, social and political circumstances on both sides of the old/new border. This essay seeks to address the Irish border’s history as well as its cultural and geopolitical contexts, based on the most useful insights of border studies. That perspective is enriched by elements of cultural memory studies to develop a position sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the border communities and individual borderlanders, who look for support and inspiration to their own local cultures and literary discourses. The aim of this essay is to explore various facets of the Irish border in light of the 2016 referendum’s results and ramifications. What is characteristic of the Tory neoimperialist vision and rhetoric in the UK is its disregard for the local, minority and regional issues on the island of Ireland. In consequence, the status of the 56 per cent of the inhabitants of Northern Ireland who voted “Remain” in the 2016 referendum may be described as that of a marginalized minority in their own country.
PDF
