Relocating regionalism: the Fin-de-Siècle Irish local colour tale in transnational contexts

Abstract

ABSTRACTDuring the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Irish regions, and especially those in the West, were interpreted as sites which expressed an authentic national character from which many Irish had become disconnected through English cultural imperialism. Local colour from this period has also mainly been interpreted through a national lens. While the past and present scholarly recognition of regional literature and culture in connection to issues of imperialism and nationalism is certainly legitimate, the hitherto rather insulary approach to Ireland’s local colour of the long nineteenth century has blinded us towards its strong transnational dimensions. This article proposes a “translocation” of Irish regional studies towards a broader European and transatlantic framework of investigation in this respect, by studying the local colour tale, a genre which records the customs, lifestyle and vernacular of a geographically specific community. This study suggests such a transnational perspective on the basis of three phenomena: the circulation of the Irish local colour story in translation across Europe; the dissemination as well as creation of Irish local colour fiction in the North American diaspora; and the role of transnationalism as a theme – in the form of (re)migrants – in Irish local colour narratives.