Chronotopes of Time and Space in Brooklyn
Abstract
Space and moving from one place to another play an important role in Brooklyn since it concerns the Irish diaspora in America and England. Different places are compared to show how Irish diaspora differs in America and England. Moreover, Irish and American cultures are taken into consideration in analyzing Eilis’ displacement. In doing so, in three sections, multi levels of immigration and living in foreign countries, with the help of chronotope of space whether geographical, physical, or mental are offered. First, the portrayal of Ireland and Irish and American society and culture in the novel is discussed. Then, Irish diaspora in England and America and their differences as spaces of immigration are argued. Finally, Eilis’ dangling between places is
investigated and it is shown how she until the end of the novel chooses to finally live in Brooklyn and overcomes her sense of displacement.
References
1- Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays (C. Emerson, M. Holoquist, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
2- Daly, M. E. (2006). The slow failure: Population decline and independent Ireland, 1922-1973. Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.
3- Dolan, J. P. (2008). The Irish Americans: A history. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
4- Ladrón, M., M. (2013). (M)Others from the Motherland in Edna O’Brien’s The Light of Evening and Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn. Studi Irlandesi: A Journal of Irish Studies, 2, 279-292.
5- Stoddard, E. W. (2012). Home and belonging among Irish migrants: Transnational versus placed identities in The Light of Evening and Brooklyn: A Novel. Éire-Ireland 47(1), 147-171.
6- Tóibín, C. (2009). Brooklyn. New York: Scribner.
7- Young, T. (2014). Brooklyn as the “untold story” of “Eveline”: Reading Joyce and Tóibín with Ricoeur. Journal of Modern Literature 37(2), 123-140.
