Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
ShareThis
Javascript must be enabled to continue!

Suspect stories: William Trevor’s portrayals of the Irish in London during the Troubles

View through CrossRef
This chapter explores how three short stories by William Trevor portray the way in which Irish people in London were affected by the Troubles. For a writer who had established a reputation for his empathetic portrayal of the anomalous position of the Anglo-Irish in Ireland, the political situation of the Irish in London in the 1970s and 1980s provided Trevor with similar subject matter, but in a wholly new context. His stories provide an important corrective to some of the more pervasive stereotypes found in the popular genre of Troubles fiction. They reveal how, during the Troubles, the neighbourhood and the home became heightened political ‘contact zones’ between migrant and host communities. With attention to AvtarBrah’s notion of ‘diaspora space’, I demonstrate how fiction, and the personal and collective narratives contained therein, has a valuable role to play in mediating memories of the Troubles in Britain. This, in turn, can inform the wider discussion of British-Irish relations and contribute to post-conflict understanding.
Title: Suspect stories: William Trevor’s portrayals of the Irish in London during the Troubles
Description:
This chapter explores how three short stories by William Trevor portray the way in which Irish people in London were affected by the Troubles.
For a writer who had established a reputation for his empathetic portrayal of the anomalous position of the Anglo-Irish in Ireland, the political situation of the Irish in London in the 1970s and 1980s provided Trevor with similar subject matter, but in a wholly new context.
His stories provide an important corrective to some of the more pervasive stereotypes found in the popular genre of Troubles fiction.
They reveal how, during the Troubles, the neighbourhood and the home became heightened political ‘contact zones’ between migrant and host communities.
With attention to AvtarBrah’s notion of ‘diaspora space’, I demonstrate how fiction, and the personal and collective narratives contained therein, has a valuable role to play in mediating memories of the Troubles in Britain.
This, in turn, can inform the wider discussion of British-Irish relations and contribute to post-conflict understanding.

Related Results

Irish Literature and the Union with Britain, 1801–1921
Irish Literature and the Union with Britain, 1801–1921
Studies of Romantic and Victorian literary culture often sideline Irish writing—not always out of Anglocentric prejudice, but also because Irish literature in those periods was fre...
Children's Literature and Young Adult Literature in Ireland
Children's Literature and Young Adult Literature in Ireland
Irish children’s and young adult literature is a rich and complex field of inquiry. While the history of Irish children’s publishing can be traced to the eighteenth century, the em...
Analisa Hukum Penetapan Tersangka Yang Didasarkan Alat Bukti Hasil Penyelidikan Oleh KPK
Analisa Hukum Penetapan Tersangka Yang Didasarkan Alat Bukti Hasil Penyelidikan Oleh KPK
This research is motivated by the practice carried out by the Corruption Eradicating Commission (KPK) in determining someone as a suspect along with the issuance of an Investigatio...
Irish Cinema
Irish Cinema
Irish cinema occupied a marginal status in world cinema until the double Oscar success in 1990 of the Irish feature My Left Foot, the directorial debut of Jim Sheridan. Three years...
Celtic and Irish Revival
Celtic and Irish Revival
The phrase Celtic Revival describes past movements in literature, the arts, and social practices in which legends, poetry, art, and spirituality of a distinctive kind were revived....
The Irish Catholic Diaspora
The Irish Catholic Diaspora
«The Irish missionary momentum in the 19th century attests to the vitality of a Christian community whose richness and great diversity this book illustrates, with particular emphas...
Queer Literature in Ireland
Queer Literature in Ireland
Dedicated to the memory of Éibhear Walshe, 1962–2024. The cultural and academic soil in which queer Irish literary scholarship took root was prepared by innumerable Irish organizat...

Back to Top