Considerations
for further study and concluding remarks
In analysing
the much-neglected discourse on the representation of Spain in
Irish literature between 1789 and 1850, the use of New
Historicism as a critical current and its concepts, tools and
tenets as a methodological framework could be valid. This is
relevant for the use of time and the dichotomy between the
synchronic and diachronic axis of time; the introduction of
the concept of 'thick description' in the critical study of a
'cultural cut', the joint analysis of literary works and other
forms of expression manifesting an underlying causal
principle, as a means of offering a more comprehensive view on
Anglo-Irish discourse; the application of the concept of the
'circulation' of textual energy, that is, the interrelatedness
of all kinds of texts; and the importance given to the
anecdote, in our case Spain and Spanish references, as an
'effect of surprise', which does not try to exemplify the
eternal truths of a literary period, but perforates narration
in order to provide points of interaction. Indeed, our
proposal is to put in contact those texts, literary and
non-literary, that shed light on any analysis of the period
with the intention of tracing the connections between them.
The new-historicist-style critical subjection of every poetic
text to a discursively historicised brand of interpretation
will eventually enable us to see these writings in a new
light, as all kinds of texts were 'fashioned' in the Irish
discourse of the period. As a result, any approach should be
concerned with the analysis of the creative power that shapes,
or 'fashions' Irish literary works outside and
inside those borders and boundaries in which they found
expression.
Our division
into three main paradigmatic guidelines for further study
could lead us to some conclusions. There is more to the choice
of Spain rather than Ireland than 'just a setting'. In the
crucial relationship between place and people lie the
controversial issues of Anglo-Irish and Irish continuities and
identities. Moreover, most of the Irish writings proposed here
account for an economic and political categorisation of place,
due to the colonial and imperial position of Britain with
respect to Ireland at the turn of the eighteenth century.
Identity, in the Anglo-Irish case, is conditioned by a
territorial boundary. This territorial boundary distinguishes
the Anglo-Irish 'collective self' from the native Irish
'Other', when the Anglo-Irish cannot depend on other objective
criteria such as race, common history, tradition and language.
The Anglo-Irish failure in the conceptualisation of place is
reflected in their maintenance of the dissociation between
Ireland, conceived as a place of colonial penetration and
exploitation, and Ireland as a mythical or aesthetic place.
The
Anglo-Irish authors proposed here do not refer to Ireland
directly, except for Charles Robert Maturin's Gothic
description of the Anglo-Irish betrayal of land. Their
references to Spain as a setting fill a gap. The Anglo-Irish
have emptied the mythical and aesthetic component of Ireland,
and therefore they cannot refer to or claim the land and the
soil as participants of the Anglo-Irish 'collective self'.
Their conceptualisation of land, of Irish land, does not fit
with a tradition they could claim as their own.
All
representations of the Spanish 'locale', such as stereotypical
references to cities that had been theatres of war -
especially Talavera de la Reina, where Britain and Ireland
fought against Napoleon -; the depiction of Oriental Spain,
which accounts for much Oriental and Ossianic enthusiasm in
literature in the English language at the time; the use of
Spanish colonial territories as an indirect allusion to
British imperialist politics in Ireland and elsewhere; and the
references to the trinity of territory, land and soil in the
1820s, have addressed the issue of place in a different
location, Spain. In the case of Anglo-Irish writings rather
than Irish ones, the lack of representation of an Anglo-Irish
Ireland in the works proposed above could lead us to
understand their relegation from the Irish canon. The
Anglo-Irish 'politics of place', though an expression of
social and political colonial power, fails in the
conceptualisation of land as a category within Anglo-Irish
'cultural hegemony'. Hence, it decreased in importance in
comparison with, on the one hand, the nationalist
conceptualisation of place, as the soil to which Irish people
attach themselves, and, on the other hand, the Anglo-Irish
ascendancy's betrayal of a land which is increasingly distant
from them.
Like place,
the issue of religion in Ireland experienced rapid changes,
which included the relaxation of the Penal Laws, the
annexation of the Church of Ireland to the Church of England
and the passing of Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Through the
representation of Spain and Spanish references, some of the
Irish writings proposed here approach the conflicting
discourse of religion in Ireland. The structure of our
analysis of the 'politics of religion' into three periods:
before the Union (1800), after the Union and before Catholic
Emancipation (1829) and the period after Emancipation, could
facilitate the study of this corpus of Irish writing with
Spanish references.
The
maintenance of the distinction Protestant-Catholic,
represented through Spain by Christian/Catholic-Muslim,
accounts for the construction of an exclusive definition of
the Anglo-Irish, especially the Protestant Ascendancy, versus
the Catholic majority in Ireland. We can perceive this
religious exclusivity in the representations of colonial
superiority through stock characterisation. With the advent of
the Union, the Churches of Ireland and Great Britain united.
The fear of a French invasion and the introduction of a
secular state in France made Christianity the central
principle of confluence both in Britain and in Ireland.
Accordingly, Spanish references in which Christianity, and not
an exclusive Catholic creed, is alluded to, facilitates the
inclusion of both Protestant and Catholic creeds. The
reference to Catholic Irish forces in the British army and the
allusion to the pre-Anglican saints and heroes in many of the
works with Spanish references evince attempts to include all
different religious creeds in the discourse of the period.
Much pamphlet
and literary writing has addressed the threat of Republican
thinking, exemplified in the revolutionary ethos that the
United Irishmen wanted to infuse in Irish people. What seemed
a moment of religious equality and encounter was engulfed by
the advance of unionist writing. The unionist literary
discourse favoured the reality after the Union in Ireland, but
enhanced the presence of an exclusive unified Anglican Church
in Ireland.
Thus, the era
of the Act of Union sheds light on the circulation of
historical, political and literary texts with the issue of
religion as a backdrop. R.B. Sheridan's and Matthew West's
versions of Pizarro show that even the religious
discourse partook of the representation of the mechanisation
of power. The communion between land, people, king and God -
mainly the Anglican God - represented in some of these works,
refers to the relegation of the Catholic majority in Ireland.
The circulation of Anglo-Irish and Irish literary and
non-literary texts tended to praise the figure of the King -
and a contemporary loyalty to kings is a central feature of
Irish Catholic people. This despite the fact that the British
monarchy kept postponing the passing of Catholic Emancipation,
as it contradicted the very essence of the British, and
therefore Anglo-Irish, character.
The
representation of Spain and Spanish references between the Act
of Union and Catholic Emancipation in 1829 is suggestive of
the thirty-year delay in granting Emancipation. Tom Garvin
equated this delay with the failure of the Union to be
accepted by the Catholic population in Ireland. Much
Anglo-Irish unionist writing adhered to the Irish reality
after the Union. If the social and political - not to mention
religious - acceptance of the Union by the Catholic majority
in Ireland failed, the literary discourse which was
essentially Anglo-Irish also failed to be accepted and
maintained. The canonical silence, that is, the absence of a
traditional literary periodisation of the writings dealt with
here, was also a result of the politics of religion through
the representations of Spain and Spanish references between
1789 and 1850.
The fight for
Catholic Emancipation was tantamount to the affirmation of a
national identity. This started to gain ground around the
1820s when Daniel O'Connell campaigned for Catholic rights.
Most writings with Spanish references do not portray Catholic
Emancipation in a favourable light. Instead, they allude to
the religious discourse in terms of differentiation and
Protestant superiority. Besides, when advances for
emancipation are made, the literary discourse these works
display attacks Catholicism and Popish influences, best
exemplified by the Anglo-Irish Gothic genre.
Traditionally,
Spanish Catholicism has helped to produce examples of fierce
British Anglican responses, which intertwine issues of
politics, society and religion. Hence, the references to the
Spanish religious discourse corroborate a particularly
Anglo-Irish fear of a future expansion of Catholicism both in
Britain and in Ireland, which influenced institutions such as
the monarchy, parliamentarian structure, the composition of
the army and the Church. The decrease of Anglican influence,
due to the extension of Catholic rights, diluted the
Anglo-Irish national identity, which finds no solid
representation in the literary discourse. The 'abnormality' of
this particular issue of religion in Anglo-Irish politics can
therefore extend to Irish literary discourse between 1789 and
1850. The impact of emancipation on Irish literary discourse
aided in the transformation of Irish cultural nationalism into
a more noticeably Catholic and even sectarian issue. This
could account for the telling reduction in the number of
Spanish references on the issue of religion between 1829 and
1850.
The 'politics
of representation' of Spanish characters - historical, stock
and female - is a key element in the study of the Irish
literary discourse between 1789 and 1850. The authors
approached here refer to and 'imagine' an Anglo-Irish
community, which could claim a continuity constituted by
history-makers, heroes and personae. Through this re-creation
of the literary discourse they try to establish the basis of a
continuity, a proper tradition, which conceptualises their
historical, political and religious discourses. |
