Irish Children's Literature and the Poetics of Memory, 1892-2016

Abstract

This thesis explores the recurring patterns of Irish mythological narratives that influence literature produced for children in Ireland following the Celtic Revival and into the twenty-first century. It argues that these narratives offer images of cultural heritage to be retrieved, re-told, remembered and re-imagined by successive generations of authors and readers. The research is underpinned by theories of narrative, including oral and print culture (Frye 1957, Le Guin 1979, Ong 1982, Bal 1997), memory (Bachelard 1969, Assmann 1970, Trigg 2011), landscape (Spirn 1998, Tilly 2010, Casey 2011) and identity (Appleyard 1992, Maybin 2005). Central to this critical methodology are the concepts of cultural memory and mythological heritage. This research thus contributes to an ongoing discussion of culture and heritage in Irish children's literature, and in children's literature internationally, and by engaging with concepts of heritage and culture, and exploring this thesis explores the centrality of memory in Irish children's literature. Analysing representative texts from the recent history of Irish children?s literature, this thesis explores the mean-making potential of the reciprocity that exists between imagination, memory, and childhood experiences in this body of work. By examining the connections between landscape, time and identity that resonate with the framework of mythological narratives that influence Irish children's literature, I posit that myth and the language of myth offer authors and readers the opportunity to engage with Ireland's culture and heritage.