Abstract
Nostalgia etymologically corresponds to a longing for returning to a euphoric place or time in past. In some cases (i.e. post-traumatic states), the acuteness of nostalgic feelings is pathologically aggravated so as to lead individual to some belligerent and even delinquent conducts. This sort of a ‘malignant’ nostalgia is delineated by Patrick McCabe, a pre-eminent contemporary Irish novelist, in his most acclaimed novel, The Butcher Boy (1992). McCabe’s protagonist, the schoolboy Francie Brady, undergoes a series of traumatic incidents triggered by his dysfunctional family, hypocritical and self-centered milieu and the corrupt public institutions. This paper, suggesting that nostalgia becomes a pathology in Francie’s case, discusses the ways in which Francie, being overcome with a pathetic obsession to bring the past back, loses his touch with the reality of the present.. This paper also argues that the protagonist’s domestic sense of nostalgia represents a longing for reattaining traditional Irish identity.
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