<p> The historiography surrounding the Irish in Canada has generally adopted an American framework that has equated Irishness with Catholicism, thereby creating a very one dimensional picture of what it meant to be Irish in nineteenth century 'Amerikey'. Although historians have shown that the greatest emigrant outpouring for this period was not only an Irish one, but also a Protestant one, relatively little has been done to understand that group on its own terms. Where solid work does exist on Irish Protestant groups in Canada, rarely does one hear them speak in their own words. Rather, where and how quickly they settled, the singular importance of kin networks and the peculiarity of certain institutions is detailed. Little has been done with respect to understanding Irish Protestant identity: how they viewed their new world upon arrival and more importantly, how they would now and later view themselves. Indeed, the question 'Whatever Happened to the Irish?' was answered: Irish Protestants despite the strength of their numbers and their institutions, simply acculturated willingly and quickly into a larger, more encompassing 'British' identity. The assumption has followed that Irish Protestants were never very Irish in the first place. On the contrary, this thesis argues that far from simply fading away, a recognizably Irish Protestant culture - one that identified itself as the Irish nation - overcame early nineteenth century prejudice against 'things Irish' and eventually came to predominate many a local landscape in Ontario. Relying heavily on emigrant letters, this thesis emphasizes an Irish Protestant discourse that enjoyed a distinction and longevity that has yet to be recognized. It also maintains that Irish Catholicism was an integral component to the expression of that identity. Irish Protestants in Ontario remained distinctively Irish for a period longer than their countrymen in Ontario and their co-religionists in the homeland. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Les nouvelles de Fitz-James O’Brien ont été réévaluées dès les années 1970 et jusqu’au début du XXIe siècle à la lumière de son origine irlandaise. L’enjeu de cette thèse est d’analyser les processus de re-nationalisation à l’œuvre dans l’interprétation de ses nouvelles : de déplacements sémantiques en projections langagières, le critique risque d’être hanté par l’histoire de l’Irlande. Il est nécessaire pour ce faire de retracer le parcours littéraire et journalistique de O’Brien, depuis ses débuts en tant que contributeur anonyme du courrier des lecteurs du journal nationaliste irlandais The Nation, jusqu’à la fondation du journal satirique américain Vanity Fair et sa mort d’une blessure qu’il a reçue au cours d’un combat de la guerre de Sécession. Il conviendra notamment d’analyser, tout le long de son parcours, le rôle de la bohème littéraire dans la construction d’un idéal artistique sans frontières et le rôle de la presse comme outil de diffusion de cet idéal et, paradoxalement, de construction d’un champ littéraire spécifiquement américain. Nous examinerons ensuite la réception de ses nouvelles et leurs adaptations. Enfin, il s’agira d’étudier les mécanismes interprétatifs qui mettent spécifiquement l’Irlande et l’« irlandicité » au cœur de la lecture des textes, ainsi que de mettre en lumière les effets rhétoriques qui permettent une telle lecture, tant dans les textes critiques que dans les nouvelles elles-mêmes. A cause de la nature éminemment référentielle de l’écriture d’O’Brien, le sens symbolique, parfois satirique, voire allégorique de ses nouvelles se dérobe au lecteur d’aujourd’hui qui se trouve contraint d’effectuer une laborieuse quête herméneutique. / Between the 1970’s and the early years of the 21st century, Fitz-James O’Brien’s short stories have been analysed with reference to his Irish birth. This dissertation aims to examine the mechanisms of re-nationalisation at work in the interpretation of his stories: by means of semantic displacements and linguistic projections, the critic runs the risk of being haunted by Irish history. It is thus necessary to reconstruct O’Brien’s literary and journalistic career, from his early anonymous contributions to the “correspondence” column of the Irish nationalist newspaper The Nation, to the creation of the American satirical magazine Vanity Fair, and his death from a wound he recieved in a skirmish during the American Civil War. This dissertation will analyse particularly the part that literary Bohemia played in creating an artistic ideal of “borderlessness,” and the part that the press played in circulating this idea, all the while partaking in the construction of a specifically American literary field. I will then examine the reception of O’Brien’s stories and how they were adapted throughout decades in various media. Finally, I will study interpretative mechanisms which place Ireland and Irishness at the centre of text-reading and I will highlight the rhetorical effects allowing such a reading, both in the critical texts and in O’Brien’s stories themselves. Because of the highly referential nature of his magazine writing, the symbolical, sometimes satirical or even allegorical meaning of his stories eludes today’s reader, who has no choice but to embark on a laborious hermeneutic quest.

Cette thèse examine comment les pièces de Martin McDonagh, dans le texte même et sur scène, démontre les éléments destructeur, homogénéisant, et renforçant des stéréotypes de la mondialisation, ainsi que les éléments positifs comme l’échange culturel et la ‘glocalisation.’ Ceci est réalisé en analysant les représentations comique du terrorisme et terrorisation présent dans les pièces, ainsi qu’une analyse de trois traductions des pièces de McDonagh en français, et une étude sur la représentation du caractère Irlandais dans les pièces de McDonagh à l’étranger. / This thesis examines the means by which the plays of Martin McDonagh, both in text and performance, display the destructive, homogenizing, or stereotype-reinforcing element of globalization, as well as the positive elements such as globalized cultural exchange and (g)localization. It does so through an analysis of the humorous representations of terrorism and terrorization present in the plays, an in depth study of three French translations of the plays, and a study of the representation of Irishness in McDonagh’s plays abroad.

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