Book Description

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Literature - Modern Literature, language: English, abstract: This essay explores in how far, in what ways and why exile, and an Irish diaspora, central concerns in the Irish writing of James Joyce and Colm Toíbín are. Exemplary, a look is taken at Joyce's short story collection Dubliners and Colm Toíbín's Brooklyn. From the onset of the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, millions of individuals emigrated from Ireland in search of a better life. Emigration was largely regarded as a matter of forceful exile in which families were being torn apart and estranged, and Ireland was losing its most valuable assets in its citizens. It is, however, important to appreciate that the subject and experience of emigration is one of great complexities, and largely individual experience. Thus, implying that the experiences from mass waves of emigration were not all stories of trauma and distress, in fact there was evidence of success. This essay therefore seeks to explore different types of exile, in addition to different perspectives and experiences of exile within the oeuvre of Joyce and Toíbín, two authors who both underwent exile from Ireland themselves.