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This thesis examines travel to continental Europe as undertaken by several generations of Irish Protestants between 1660 and 1727. Historians draw parallels between the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland and other polities in ancien régime Europe, but these demand an exploration of contemporary encounters. Research on the Irish in Europe concentrates on Catholics without much regard to Protestant experiences, while work on English or British travel overlooks ways in which Irish Protestant voyages differed. This thesis analyses the experiences of Church-of-Ireland families from the gentry, nobility and aristocracy, especially the Southwells, Percevals, Molesworths, Molyneuxs, Boyles and Butlers. Correspondence, notebooks and financial accounts reconstruct their voyages, mainly to France, Italy, the Low Countries and Germany, and their attitudes towards the practice of travel. Journeys to other destinations are incorporated, as are the voyages of neighbours, acquaintances and employees. Purposes varied, but travel was consistently considered an opportunity for 'improvement'. The thesis follows the successive preoccupations of travellers, beginning with demonstrations of 'fitness to travel'. Wealthy young men were judged according to criteria that privileged anglicisation and Protestantism, though linguistic skill was a more socially-comprehensive standard. Advisors emphasised civil conversation and written observation, but warnings to avoid 'countrymen' were ignored. The company of English-speaking travellers and Irish Catholic expatriates created distinctive European experiences. Foreign hosts often saw uncomplicated Englishmen, though some recognised Irish difference. Anglican travellers held qualified membership of a 'Protestant international', drawing on a cross-confessional 'stock of friends'. Travellers received tuition that complicates perceptions of travel as 'informal' education and they memorialised experiences through souvenirs and gifts. Voyages encouraged some into English residence and identifications, though others brought improvements home to Ireland. 'Improvement', as it related to wealthy Church-of-Ireland families, functioned not as a binary between approved England and disdained Ireland but a triangular exchange in which continental Europe featured prominently.

Сette thèse est consacrée à l'étude des noms de mémoire « Easter rising » et « Bloody sunday » et les constellations onomastiques qui les entourent, dans la littérature irlandaise d’expression anglaise du XXe et XXIe siècle. La recherche est menée sur trois axes : historique, linguistique et littéraire. Cette thèse démontre, à travers l'analyse des contextes littéraires des noms de mémoire et de leur mise en discours, les fonctions que ces derniers peuvent remplir dans le discours littéraire irlandais. Elle s’interroge sur les valeurs culturelles et symboliques qu'ils sont aptes à véhiculer, aux mécanismes du développement d'un nom de mémoire,à l'interrelation entre un événement historique, son image et le (ou les) discours élaboré(s) sur cet événement et sur ces acteurs. Elle se concentre particulièrement sur les cadres discursifs (verbaux) et prédiscursifs (tacites) que ces noms de mémoires activent en discours, et aux moyens que l’écrivain utilise pour déstabiliser ces cadres ou en sortir. / The study focuses on « memory names » « Easter Rising » and « Bloody Sunday » and on onomastic fields buildt around them in Anglo-Irish contemporary fiction. This researсh is conducted at the crossroads of history, linguistics and literary analysis. It aims to show the functions they can fill in Irish literary discourse through an analysis of the contexts surrounding the « memory names » and the ways they are expressed. The cultural and symbolical values that they convey, the mecanisms of development of a memory name, as well as the interrelation between an historical event, its representation and (or) the discours about the event and its actors are examined in detail. The study focuses in particular on discursive and non-verbal ideological frames conveyed by the « memory names », and on the means that a writer uses to deconstruct these frames or to move outside the framework.

Les images textiles parsèment l’œuvre de Paul Muldoon (né en 1951), où les tissus recherchés comme le « dimity », le « buckram » et le « barège » côtoient des articles de linge tel que les nappes brodées à la main, les couvertures souillées, et les tuniques en lin. L’ampleur et la fréquence des images textiles au fil de l’oeuvre constituent un trope qui occupe une place privilégiée dans l’univers de Muldoon. Procédant d’une lecture « textile » de sa poésie, l’hypothèse est posée que l’œuvre de Muldoon s’inscrit dans une tradition où texte et textile sont étroitement liés. Elle remonte à l’Antiquité grecque en passant par Jonathan Swift, W. B. Yeats et les poètes irlandais de l’après-guerre. En outre, cette thèse démontre comment Muldoon intègre l’héritage économique, politique et culturel de l’industrie textile en Irlande du Nord dans la trame même de ses textes. / The Textile Poetics of Paul Muldoon (1951-) Paul Muldoon’s poetry has consistently made reference to textiles. Alongside descriptions of highly specialised fabrics such as dimity, buckram and barège, his work also features numerous textile images including hand-embroidered tablecloths, soiled blankets and linen shifts. Indeed, the detail and scope of Muldoon’s textile imagery suggests that the trope is central to his poetic. By examining the various ways he incorporates textiles into his poetry, this thesis posits the argument that Muldoon’s poetic is essentially a textile one. Moreover, by considering the relationship between texts and textiles, this thesis also aims to show how Muldoon’s textile poetic draws on a tradition extending from classical Greek poetry through to Jonathan Swift, W. B. Yeats and post-War Irish poetry. In addition it will also study how the economic, political and cultural legacy of Ireland’s textile industry is threaded through Muldoon’s work.

This thesis discusses twentieth century children's fantasy fiction. The writers whose creative output is dealt with include Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, Pat O'Shea, Peter Dickinson, T.H.White, Lloyd Alexander and, to a lesser extent, C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien. These authors have been chosen because their books, whilst being of a broadly similar nature, nevertheless have a sufficient diversity to illustrate well many different important aspects of children's fantasy. Chapter I examines the sources of modern fantasy, presents the attitudes of different authors towards borrowing from traditional sources and their reasons for doing so, and looks at the changing interpretation of myths. Chapter II talks about the presentation of the primary and secondary worlds and the ways in which they interact. It also discusses the characters' attitudes towards magic. Chapter III looks at the presentation of magic, examines the traditional fairy-tale conventions and their implementation in modern fantasies, and discusses the concepts of evil, time, and the laws governing fantasy worlds. Chapter IV deals with the methods of narration and the figure of the narrator. It presents briefly the prevailing plot patterns, discusses the use of different kinds of language, and the ideas of pan-determinism and prophecy. The concluding chapter considers the main subjects and aims of children's fantasy, the reasons why the genre is so popular, and its successes and failures.

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Drawing especially on Donna Haraway's notion of the cyborg, this thesis argues that Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl novels, through their depiction of the cyborg and their use of metafiction, intertextuality, and irony, subvert binaries and hierarchies that cause social injustice. Chapter one argues that Colfer's characters disrupt the oppressive binary opposition between innocence and experience that characterizes children's literature. Chapter two argues that Colfer's fairy hierarchy satirizes the human hierarchy. Chapter three argues that Colfer's cyborg, by disrupting the boundary between machine and organism, breaches the wall around the pervasive garden hierarchy of childhood innocence. Chapter four argues against the traditional textual hierarchies which classify children's literature as inferior, and which give adult writers power over child readers.

This dissertation examines theatre and film in Ireland between 1988 and 2005, focusing on the plays of Sebastian Barry and Marina Carr, as well as a select group of films from this period. Employing a method of analysis that couples close-readings with attention to socio-cultural context, aesthetic form, and issues of representation, the dissertation demonstrates how theatre and film work to complicate conventional Irish historical narratives and thereby encourages a reassessment of contemporary constructs of Irish identity. The introduction provides a contextual framework for significant contemporaneous social, cultural and economic changes in Ireland, and includes a case study of ‘The Spire,’ a monument unveiled on Dublin’s central boulevard in 2003, which I argue is the architectural metonym for the transitional nature of Celtic Tiger Ireland. The case study explores the aesthetics of the monument, as well as the politicised public debate that ensued, and thereby provides a snapshot of issues relevant to the readings pursued in dissertation’s remaining chapters. The discussion of Sebastian Barry’s ‘family plays’ reveals the playwright’s effort to refuse traditional binary conceptions of identity and to proffer, instead, a dramatic landscape that similarly refuses to allow conflict to dominate. Barry’s use of a non-conflictual dramatic form supports his narrative interest in compassion and peaceful resolution, and provides a model for living with otherness that could prove useful in an increasingly diverse and globalised Ireland. Marina Carr’s plays share Barry’s desire to represent aspects of Irish character anew, but they also dramatise how cultural transitions are difficult and never linear, and how the conventional pull of memory and the past has a residual presence in the ‘new’ Ireland. Taken together, these chapters reveal Barry’s hopefulness as an antidote to Carr’s tragic endings. The final chapter provides close readings of several ‘Celtic Tiger’ films, arguing that the representation of landscape is the key lens through which Irish film communicates shifting images of Irish identity. A cycle of films from the first years of the new millennium ekes out a space for new modes of representation through a critical dialogue with major tropes in Irish film history.

This dissertation examines theatre and film in Ireland between 1988 and 2005, focusing on the plays of Sebastian Barry and Marina Carr, as well as a select group of films from this period. Employing a method of analysis that couples close-readings with attention to socio-cultural context, aesthetic form, and issues of representation, the dissertation demonstrates how theatre and film work to complicate conventional Irish historical narratives and thereby encourages a reassessment of contemporary constructs of Irish identity. The introduction provides a contextual framework for significant contemporaneous social, cultural and economic changes in Ireland, and includes a case study of ‘The Spire,’ a monument unveiled on Dublin’s central boulevard in 2003, which I argue is the architectural metonym for the transitional nature of Celtic Tiger Ireland. The case study explores the aesthetics of the monument, as well as the politicised public debate that ensued, and thereby provides a snapshot of issues relevant to the readings pursued in dissertation’s remaining chapters. The discussion of Sebastian Barry’s ‘family plays’ reveals the playwright’s effort to refuse traditional binary conceptions of identity and to proffer, instead, a dramatic landscape that similarly refuses to allow conflict to dominate. Barry’s use of a non-conflictual dramatic form supports his narrative interest in compassion and peaceful resolution, and provides a model for living with otherness that could prove useful in an increasingly diverse and globalised Ireland. Marina Carr’s plays share Barry’s desire to represent aspects of Irish character anew, but they also dramatise how cultural transitions are difficult and never linear, and how the conventional pull of memory and the past has a residual presence in the ‘new’ Ireland. Taken together, these chapters reveal Barry’s hopefulness as an antidote to Carr’s tragic endings. The final chapter provides close readings of several ‘Celtic Tiger’ films, arguing that the representation of landscape is the key lens through which Irish film communicates shifting images of Irish identity. A cycle of films from the first years of the new millennium ekes out a space for new modes of representation through a critical dialogue with major tropes in Irish film history.