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Irish Expatriatism, Language and Literature

The Problem of English

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  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Michael O'Sullivan

    1. Department of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

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  • Gives new readings of writers such as Oliver Goldsmith, William Butler Yeats, and John Boyne in terms of expat Irish identity
  • Focuses on Irish expatriatism in non-native English communities often overlooked in Irish Studies
  • Contributes to a range of disciplines including literary studies, Irish studies and diaspora studies

Part of the book series: New Directions in Irish and Irish American Literature (NDIIAL)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 1-57

  3. Swift: The Disgruntled Expat ‘at Home’ Plays with a Language of Racial Othering

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 59-77

  4. Goldsmith: The Irish Expat in London as Chinese Philosopher

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 79-96

  5. Boland: Can the Expat Find a “Home” in Language?

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 97-108

  6. Yeats: The Expat Buys Property ‘Back Home’

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 109-126

  7. Joyce: The Irish Expat and the ‘Loss of English’

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 127-148

  8. Bowen: The Unspeakable Loneliness of the Anglo-Irish Expat

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 149-172

  9. Irish Expat Empire Builders in China and Hong Kong: Robert Hart and John Pope Hennessy

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 173-189

  10. A Forgotten Irish Cosmopolitanism: Goh Poh Seng’s Ireland of the 1950s

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 191-196

  11. Social Network Expatriatism and New Departures in John Boyne, Anne Enright, and Donal Ryan

    • Michael O’Sullivan
    Pages 197-211

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 213-228
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Reviews

“In the field of Irish Studies, finding a new perspective can often be difficult; and this is especially true of issues like the Diaspora and the experience of immigration and emigration. In Irish Expatriatism, Language and Literature, Michael O’Sullivan has achieved exactly such a fresh perspective. This excellent and perceptive study focuses on writers who typically regarded their migrations as periods of non-permanent residence abroad for economic reasons in professions their societies often aligned with cultural capital. For this reason their migratory personas have most often been described as emigrants and expats. O’Sullivan traces what might be termed epistemological migrancy, tracing feelings such as loneliness, a constant state of (un)belonging, the desire to buy property ‘back home’, and the loss of a language.” (Dr Eugene O’Brien, University of Limerick, Ireland)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

    Michael O'Sullivan

About the author

Michael O’Sullivan is Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has worked for universities in Ireland, the UK, the US, Japan and Hong Kong. He has published widely in Irish Studies and in the humanities. Recent books include The Humanities and the Irish University and The Incarnation of Language: Joyce, Proust and a Philosophy of the Flesh.

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