Unreliability in Contemporary Irish FictionNarration, Masculinities, and the Affects of Trauma, Guilt and Shame in Damian McNicholl's "A Son Called Gabriel" and John Boyne's "A History of Loneliness" and "The Heart’s Invisible Furies" stars

Abstract

This thesis dissertation looks at unreliable narration and its application to contemporary literature from the Republic and the North of Ireland. Three novels, Damian McNicholl’s A Son Called Gabriel, and John Boyne’s A History of Loneliness and The Heart’s Invisible Furies, have been selected to discuss (un)reliability and its connection to masculinities and the affects of trauma, guilt, and shame. These narratives show the narrators’ need for unreliability and how it is portrayed on the page, as well as the representation of trauma, guilt, and shame brought about by the societies of the Republic and the North of Ireland of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This study deals first with the exploration of the historical and social background of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland especially since the 1950s to the present day. Taking the selected novels as basis, I show the changes that these societies went through mainly in terms of the secularization of the countries and sexuality. Politics is also relevant to discuss the relationship between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, an essential part of my analysis. Next, chapter three focuses on masculinities. The three protagonists of the novels are all male characters and, since their masculinities are a strong and essential part of their identity and characterization, a study on masculinities is needed, especially regarding what it meant to be a man in the 1950s and what it implies now. I focus on Irish masculinities to understand the characters better, as well as fatherhood to explore the relationship of the protagonists with their fathers and sons in order to understand them as men. Chapter four deals with narration, given that my analysis is based on how trauma, guilt, shame, and even masculinity affect narration. Thus, I pay attention to the figure of the narrator and then move on to unreliable narration. I here discuss different interpretations of this narratological figure through examples from contemporary literature written in English. I also tackle other related terms such as focalization, Catholic confession, or life narratives, given the plot of the selected novels. Chapter five is devoted to an analysis of the affects of trauma, memory, guilt, and shame, since their understanding is essential to comprehend next the ideas present in the narratives. All four of them are discussed regarding their relationship to unreliability, as well as their relationship to gender roles—once again, with a focus on masculinities. This thesis, then, presents a combination of those four chapters (Irish society, masculinities, narration, and the emotions mentioned) in the three novels chosen. Chapters six to eight are devoted to the analyses of A Son Called Gabriel, A History of Loneliness, and The Heart’s Invisible Furies, respectively. Finally, chapter nine deals with the conclusions of this thesis, including a proposal for a new classification of unreliable narration, drawn from the three novels.