A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in IrelandStrangely positioned between Europe and the postcolonial world, Ireland occupies a fluid and contradictory space, not least in the memory or imagination of its many emigrants. In this sensitive exploration of the culture of others, Rebecca Solnit returns to Ireland, armed with a newly-acquired Irish passport - courtesy of otherwise forgotten maternal ancestors. Her journey is not to find stable identity in ancestral roots but to confront notions of stability, identity, ethnicity and nationalism in one of their great mythic sources. A Book of Migrations is a postcolonial revision of conventional travel literature. In her passage through Ireland, Rebecca Solnit portrays in microcosm a history made of great human tides of invasion, colonization, emigration, nomadism and tourism. Travel itself produces its own versions of memory and identity, and travel's transformation into the information age's pre-eminent industry - tourism - comes under close scrutiny. It is no accident that her journey culminates in an encounter with the Travellers, the indigenous nomads of contemporary Ireland. |
From inside the book
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Page 50
... dreams that are all the more alluring for being just beyond recollection . That the primary subject of that dream was suffering didn't dissipate its enchantment for me , and still hasn't . I didn't hear histories until later , only read ...
... dreams that are all the more alluring for being just beyond recollection . That the primary subject of that dream was suffering didn't dissipate its enchantment for me , and still hasn't . I didn't hear histories until later , only read ...
Page 76
... dream of flying away from a man who was two men I loved , the rosebush cavern , past the old bottle dump we excavated , the buckeyes , and the shed , over the crest of the hill and down the gravel road past the pasture where I learned ...
... dream of flying away from a man who was two men I loved , the rosebush cavern , past the old bottle dump we excavated , the buckeyes , and the shed , over the crest of the hill and down the gravel road past the pasture where I learned ...
Page 183
... Dream Analysis of ' Sweeney among the Nightingales , ” p . 64 : “ it sounds like ' Raven - a - bitch ' : a bitch dog with ravenous hunger . " In Critical Essays on T.S. Eliot . Since I wrote this chapter , Anthony Julius's T. S. Eliot ...
... Dream Analysis of ' Sweeney among the Nightingales , ” p . 64 : “ it sounds like ' Raven - a - bitch ' : a bitch dog with ravenous hunger . " In Critical Essays on T.S. Eliot . Since I wrote this chapter , Anthony Julius's T. S. Eliot ...
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American animals became become began beginning birds blood blue body California called Casement Catholic century changed church Cliffs of Moher culture described dream Dublin emigration England English Europe European exile Famine farm forest Galway green ground half head human identity imagination Ireland Irish island Jews Joyce kind land landscape language later least lived looked means memory metaphor mountain native nature never nomads North once origins passed past perhaps poem poets political population Press rest river road rock seemed sense side sometimes stone stories Street suggest Sweeney talk things thought told took tourist town tradition Travellers trees turned University walking walls wandering Wandering Jew whole wild woman writes York young