The child as emblem of a nation in twentieth-century Irish literature
Abstract
The Irish literary child has its nascence in earliest Celtic mythology and flourishes as an emblem of the Irish nation throughout Irish literature to the present day. This project concentrates on the development of this symbolic figure in twentieth century Irish poetry and fiction and juxtaposes the figure of the literary child at any given point in the century with political and social conditions of Ireland at the time. The result of this pairing over the course of the century is the revelation of the paradigmatic nature of the child in Irish literature. As the nature of and challenges before this child evolve in literature, so does the nation of Ireland.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature
Recommended Citation
Young, Barbara Ann, "The child as emblem of a nation in twentieth-century Irish literature" (2003). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3083165.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3083165
