Home > Catalogue > Il Tolomeo > 18 | 2016 > Postcolonial Trauma in William Trevor’s Anglo-Irish Big House Trilogy

Il Tolomeo | Vol. 18 | December 2016

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Research Article

Postcolonial Trauma in William Trevor’s Anglo-Irish Big House Trilogy

Angelo Monaco    Università di Pisa, Italia    

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abstract

This article explores William Trevor’s Big House trilogy that is set against the backdrop of the early twentieth century Anglo-Irish tensions. By interweaving postcolonial theory and trauma studies, my investigation seeks to unveil the melancholic and anti-melancholic stance in Trevor’s fiction. Through narrative experimentalism, intertextual and intratextual links and symbolism, Trevor subverts the traditional features of the Big House literary tradition, showing that traumatic colonial history can offer a redemption of sort that discloses the transformative power of literary (postcolonial) imagination.

Published
Dec. 19, 2016
Accepted
Nov. 10, 2016
Submitted
Aug. 31, 2016
Language
EN

Keywords: Anglo-Irish Big House Fiction • William Trevor • Postcolonial Trauma Literature • Melancholia

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-5975/Tol-18-16-11

Copyright: © 2016 Angelo Monaco. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.