An analysis of Irish famine texts, 1845-2000 : the discursive uses of hunger

The Great Famine (1845--1852) was not only a catastrophic moment in Irish history, it was and remains an important source of textual production, particularly in regard to literature and drama. These cultural products carry a powerful discourse used to communicate various social and political agendas. From the beginning, Irish novelists, poets and dramatists have confronted the question of the Famine's meaning then and now. At each historical moment, they have interrogated the Famine and have employed various discursive strategies to communicate to their readers and audiences. This dissertation makes four primary claims: (a) The historical Irish Famine has remained a source of discursive activity by Irish writers, and so constitutes a phenomenon that merits communication research; (b) This discursive content constructs the Famine in ways that communicate its meaning for contemporary readers in successive historical periods; (c) The multiple discursive meanings of the Famine are often contradictory, and demonstrate the conflicting socio-cultural and political goals of both writers and their readerships; and (d) The emergence and evolution of Famine discourse, which consistently recruits pre-existing discourses, provides an important site for examination of the communicational function of imaginative literature and drama. A survey of Famine literature and drama reveals inconsistent patterns of textual production and discursive content. By determining the historical periods of Famine literary and dramatic production, and by analyzing the contextual dimensions and textual features of representative works, the reasons behind periods of high and low output, the purposes of discursive maintenance and manipulation and the relationship between literary and dramatic discourse and readerships can be approached. To undertake this analysis, five central tropes---land, national identity, religion, gender and agency---are employed. These themes are multi-layered and mutually implicated both on the level of textual production and consumption, that is, in their writing and in their reading/viewing. These tropes have been employed in and through the communicational perspectives of several thinkers, notably Pierre Bourdieu and Teun van Dijk. Termed an Gorta Mor in the Irish language, the Famine dramatically altered Ireland's social, economic and political fabric, triggered massive emigration to America, Britain and Canada, and etched itself into the Irish psyche as an enduring, if frequently repressed, moment of trauma. As such, a study of its role in communication, in human meaning-making, can illuminate not only Irish experience but the human capacity to tell a bitter, painful story, for specific ends, by remembering and manipulating its elements and to use that story as tool in achieving social and political goals, and in obtaining or maintaining power.

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