Eureka Street
Greetings again, everyone. Here is some of the lowdown on Robert McLiam Wilson: Born in 1964. A Belfast writer. A Catholic (as a Catholic growing up in West Belfast, he might have been expected to have developed IRA sympathies). "Like that of most citizens of Belfast," he has written, "my identity is the subject of some local dispute. Some say I'm British, some say I'm Irish, some even say that there's no way I'm five foot eleven and that I'm five ten at best. In many ways I'm not permitted to contribute to this debate. If the controversy is ever satisfactorily concluded, I will be whatever the majority of people tell me I am. As a quotidian absolute, nationality is almost meaningless. For an Italian living in Italy, Italianness is not much of a distinction. What really gives nationality its chiaroscuro, its flavor, is a little dash of hatred and fear. Nobody really knows or cares what they are until they meet what they don't want to be. Then it's time for the flags and guns to come out."
Eureka Street (1996) is his third novel, following the highly regarded and prize-winning Ripley Bogle (1989) and Manfred's Pain (1992). You'll gather very quickly that he's a striking urban writer and, indeed, Eureka Street will remind us of other great urban writers like Dickens and, more appropriately, Joyce. As you read, think about how his Belfast is mapped: is it mapped according to the confining logic and segregated spatialities of the Troubles (no-go areas, Catholics here, Protestants there)? Or is there a different logic at work? Having read de Certeau should help you to think about mobility and identity in McLiam Wilson's Belfast.
As I'll hope to mention in class on Monday, the dominant literary genre during the Troubles has undoubtedly been the thriller -- there have been many hundreds of them. They very often have quite grossly simplified the nature of the conflict; if one didn't know better, they would cause one to think that Northern Ireland has been utterly consumed by war (a war fought by two crazed, tribal groups, fighting to the death). One thing McLiam Wilson sets out to do in this novel is to represent the ordinary citizen, the citizen who is more concerned with the mundane realities of day-to-day life. In fact, McLIam Wilson once said that "an awful lot of people in Northern Ireland simply don't care whether it is Irish, British or independent. Yet no one speaks for them and no one reflects their views or even demonstrates the fact that they exist."
The other big part of the historical context for this novel is the fact that the peace process had started to gain a kind of tenuous momentum by 1993. It was a time of ceasefires, broken ceasefires, fits and starts, persistent but cautious optimism ... It's this new spirit of hopefulness that may be causing the classic Troubles thriller to mutate into something noticeably different in Eureka Street. Think about how you would characterize the tone and the genre identity of this novel. What is this novel's attitude towards the contemporary conflict? Towards politics? How does it interpret Irish and Northern Irish history? What is its vision of the future? Where does Britishness fit in when we talk about identity in this novel?
Eureka Street (1996) is his third novel, following the highly regarded and prize-winning Ripley Bogle (1989) and Manfred's Pain (1992). You'll gather very quickly that he's a striking urban writer and, indeed, Eureka Street will remind us of other great urban writers like Dickens and, more appropriately, Joyce. As you read, think about how his Belfast is mapped: is it mapped according to the confining logic and segregated spatialities of the Troubles (no-go areas, Catholics here, Protestants there)? Or is there a different logic at work? Having read de Certeau should help you to think about mobility and identity in McLiam Wilson's Belfast.
As I'll hope to mention in class on Monday, the dominant literary genre during the Troubles has undoubtedly been the thriller -- there have been many hundreds of them. They very often have quite grossly simplified the nature of the conflict; if one didn't know better, they would cause one to think that Northern Ireland has been utterly consumed by war (a war fought by two crazed, tribal groups, fighting to the death). One thing McLiam Wilson sets out to do in this novel is to represent the ordinary citizen, the citizen who is more concerned with the mundane realities of day-to-day life. In fact, McLIam Wilson once said that "an awful lot of people in Northern Ireland simply don't care whether it is Irish, British or independent. Yet no one speaks for them and no one reflects their views or even demonstrates the fact that they exist."
The other big part of the historical context for this novel is the fact that the peace process had started to gain a kind of tenuous momentum by 1993. It was a time of ceasefires, broken ceasefires, fits and starts, persistent but cautious optimism ... It's this new spirit of hopefulness that may be causing the classic Troubles thriller to mutate into something noticeably different in Eureka Street. Think about how you would characterize the tone and the genre identity of this novel. What is this novel's attitude towards the contemporary conflict? Towards politics? How does it interpret Irish and Northern Irish history? What is its vision of the future? Where does Britishness fit in when we talk about identity in this novel?
posted by Eric at 12:57 AM
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