Edna O'Brien and narrative diaspora space

Abstract

Given the persistent presence of migration in the work of Edna O'Brien, it is surprising how marginal a theme it is in critiques of her work. This article explores how questions of diaspora have reached a renewed level of depth and intensity in her novel The Light of Evening (2006) and the related short story ‘My Two Mothers’ (2011). Looking, in particular, at how letters play a central role in the relationships of three generations of Irish women across three countries, it analyses how issues of mother(land), diaspora and belonging are mediated through migrant fiction. It draws on the work of Avtar Brah and Paul Ricoeur to argue that, along with related forms of textuality within O'Brien's oeuvre, letters represent a ‘narrative diaspora space’ which illuminates the relationship between mothers, daughters and writing in Irish migrant experience.

Keywords:

• Edna O'Brien
• migration
• diaspora space
• mothers and daughters
• narrative
• letters
• epistolary

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Acknowledgements

I am especially grateful to Irene Gedalof for making such helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

 1. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 33–4.

 2. Ryan, ‘Irish Emigration to Britain since World War II’, 66–7.

 3. For an examination of how this archetype has been represented in the literature of the Irish in Britain, see Murray, ‘Navvy Narratives’.

 4. See, for instance, Tóibín, Brooklyn and Barry, On Canaan's Side.

 5. For a recent critical study of this literature, see McWilliams, Women and Exile in Contemporary Irish Fiction.

 6. Interview with Edna O'Brien on ‘Today with Pat Kenny’, RTÉ Radio 1, 17 October 2011.

 7. ‘Edna O'Brien: Life Stories’, RTÉ, 8 May 2012, 10.15 pm. For a reference to a similar habit on the part of a one of O'Brien's fictional characters, see ‘A Rose in the Heart’ in Mrs. Reinhardt and Other Stories, 114.

 8. ‘Edna O'Brien: Life Stories’, RTÉ, 8 May 2012, 10.15 pm. For a reference to a similar habit on the part of a one of O'Brien's fictional characters, see ‘A Rose in the Heart’ in Mrs Reinhardt and Other Stories, 114

 9. See Walter, Outsiders Inside; Ryan, ‘Family Matters’; Gray, Women and the Irish Diaspora.

10. Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora, 208.

11. Ní Laoire, ‘Discourses of Nation’; Feldman, ‘Alterity and Belonging in Diaspora Space’; Hickman, ‘Diaspora Space and National (Re)Formations’.

12. In recent research, Walter has demonstrated how fiction offers a revealing source for social science investigation. See, for instance, Walter, ‘Strangers on the Inside’.

13. Knott, ‘Space and Movement’, 83.

14. Walter, Outsiders Insider, 194.

15. Gray, Women and the Irish Diaspora, 35.

16. The ‘American Wake’, which was a farewell gathering held the night before migrants left Ireland, is a good example of this. For an examination of this phenomenon, see Miller, Emigrants and Exiles, 556–68.

17. Gray, Women and the Irish Diaspora, 162.

18. Giorgio, ‘Writing the Mother–Daughter Relationship’, 29.

19. As quoted in Laing, Mooney, and O'Connor, Edna O'Brien, 2.

20. Gedalof, ‘Birth, Belonging and Migrant Mothers’, 81, 96.

21. Dennison, ‘Eternal Flame’.

22. O'Brien, ‘My Two Mothers’, 173. For an earlier treatment of similar material, see O'Brien, ‘Forbidden’.

23. O'Brien, ‘My Two Mothers’, 179.

24. Benjamin, The Bonds of Love, 12.

25. Giorgio, ‘Writing the Mother–Daughter Relationship’, 29.

26. Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora, 183.

27. Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora, 208.

28. Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora, 125.

29. Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 147–8.

30. Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, 246.

31. Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora, 183.

32. Abbott, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, 94.

33. Oral testimonies, folk ballads and the curation of exhibitions about migration could all be regarded as examples of ‘narrative diaspora space’.

34. O'Brien's memoir Country Girl, due to be published by Faber & Faber in 2012, will undoubtedly add another dimension to this.

35. O'Brien, ‘My Mother's Mother’, 32.

36. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 28.

37. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 29.

38. See, Yeats, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’.

39. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 30.

40. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 180.

41. O'Brien, The Light of Evening

42. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 151.

43. Thomson, ‘“I'm not a good mother”’, 162–3.

44. Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation, 609.

45. McWilliams, ‘Making it up with the Motherland’, 59.

46. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 177.

47. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 316.

48. Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora, 183.

49. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 321.

50. O'Brien, ‘My Two Mothers’, 175.

51. O'Brien, ‘My Two Mothers’, 175

52. O'Brien, ‘My Two Mothers’, 175

53. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 19.

54. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 59.

55. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 67.

56. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 97.

57. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 107.

58. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 163.

59. Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume 1, 27.

60. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 164–5.

61. Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 148.

62. O'Brien, The Light of Evening, 308.

63. Fogarty, ‘“The Horror of the Unlived Life”’, 89.