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20 décembre 2012
- doi: 10.4000/books.puc.569
- isbn: 9782841332892
- eisbn: 9782841334506
https://www.openedition.org/12554 , info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Mots-clés
Irlande famine littérature irlandaise littérature de langue anglaise Literature, British Isles LIT004120 DSBSujets proches
FamineCiter ce document
Fabienne Dabrigeon-Garcier, « De l’ellipse au silence », Presses universitaires de Caen, ID : 10.4000/books.puc.569
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Résumé
The Silent People (1962), the central piece of Walter Macken’s fictional trilogy dealing with major tragedies in Irish history, is but partially devoted to the Great Famine. Only the final chapters focus on the first two years of the potato blight, whereas the preceding ones concentrate on the emergence of Daniel O’Connell as leader of the oppressed Catholics in the course of the Clare election in 1828. Curiously enough, the 1829 Catholic Emancipation is completely left out of the scope of the novel, as are the last two years of the Famine. This essay investigates the reasons for these two ellipses. It also attempts to account for Macken’s popular success by looking at the rhetoric of euphoria and dysphoria put to dramatic effect in the novel, and at the nationalist agenda informing his otherwise well-documented emplotment of the Famine.