Debunking Protestant Celticism: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Language Appropriation in ‘The Quare Gander’ and ‘An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street’

Abstract

ABSTRACT Colonial domination has been exercised by many means, exhibiting varied forms and expressions, one of the most prominent ones being language. Postcolonial countries and writers usually have to contend with the dilemma of which language to use, whether to employ their own native tongues, thus fostering national invigoration and a demise of colonial past, or whether the language of the coloniser is a valid tool for national, postcolonial expression. The Irish case is paradoxical: while Ireland possesses a language different to the tongue of the colonisers, by the time literacy was widespread, it had lost its vantage point among the majority of the population, especially the educated elites. In Ireland the question was how to best adapt the language to employ it as a decolonising tool. While many critics place such abrogation movement in the early twentieth century, in the context of the Irish Revival, this paper demonstrates that such language deployments had its origins in the nineteenth century, invigorated by Celticism and Protrestant Cultural Nationalism. By examining two narratives by Dublin-born writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, the present study unveils how language was employed to break the well-established paradigms associated to Catholic classes and the Irish national identity.