The Big House Motif in the Twentieth Century Hiberno-English Novel
Graduation Date
Spring 1986
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
In this thesis we will look closely at five novels about big housed in Ireland. In order to provide the historical background necessary to understanding the context in which these novels were written, Chapter 1 briefly discusses the history of the Anglo-Irish from the time of Cromwell through the Irish revolution and civil war in the early twentieth century. In this chapter the significance of the big house as a symbol for the Anglo-Irish will be explored, and attention given to the development of a group of novels that revolve around that symbol, which, for purposes of this thesis, will be called "big house novels.
In Chapter 2, two big house novels will be examined. Both of these novels are set at about the tine of the Irish revolution, known in Ireland as 'the troubles.’ Chapter 3 considers a transitional novel that begins with the troubles and concludes in the present. Chapter 4 focuses on two big house novels set considerably later. Each of the five novels will be examined with two intentions: to see how the author employed the symbol of the big house in the work and to understand the primary significance of the novel as a complete work. In the course of examining the novels, we will see which charlatanistics they share that distinguish them from other novels, and we will see that, despite these shared characteristics, the novels are not redundant but that each adds significant new views of the subject they all address.
-Thesis excerpt-