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Identity Construction: National Identity, or Gender and Class?
Summary: Although people do think of themselves as belonging to a nation, as individuals, they are more likely to define themselves through the issues that affect them personally. This means that the roles of the different genders and their social class will affect people on a much more personal level. Anne Enright's novel The Wig My Father Wore and Roddy Doyle's novel The Woman Who Walked into Doors offer revelations as to how contemporary society in Ireland views itself; they show how the characters identified themselves not as being Irish, but more as women and people in social society.
Every person will identify themselves as having some sort of nationality. However, it is the conditions of classes and gender that affect the everyday lives of the individual. If the form of literature is an accurate reflection of public opinion, through the study of the novels The Wig My Father Wore, Anne Enright, and The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Roddy Doyle, we should see the terms by which contemporary Irish society identifies itself.
Firstly we should consider what a nation is and what represents it. As an English citizen thinks of Scotland, for example, they will be filled with images of tartan kilts and the highlands. But is this really what being Scottish is all about? Does anyone in Scotland really wear a kilt as part of their everyday life? From an English person's point of view it is possible to think of Scottish and Irish culture...
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This section contains 2,995 words (approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page) |
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