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 58
... town to the next along the west coast , and the list of names themselves were an incantation , Bantry and Kenmare ... towns , and they do so in ser- pentine lines that writhe even more to accommodate the steep terrain of the west . Still ...
... town to the next along the west coast , and the list of names themselves were an incantation , Bantry and Kenmare ... towns , and they do so in ser- pentine lines that writhe even more to accommodate the steep terrain of the west . Still ...
Page 84
... town square . Two middleaged women there passed each other , and one said , Evening . Bit of rain , not a question or an opening or a revelation , only a fact . And when I went up a back street to the stone cir- cle on the edge of town ...
... town square . Two middleaged women there passed each other , and one said , Evening . Bit of rain , not a question or an opening or a revelation , only a fact . And when I went up a back street to the stone cir- cle on the edge of town ...
Page 91
... town to the forest as often as my feet and the allure of information allowed . The town itself had medievally narrow streets , a population that seemed more in retreat from their fond invaders than most towns I saw , and crowds of ...
... town to the forest as often as my feet and the allure of information allowed . The town itself had medievally narrow streets , a population that seemed more in retreat from their fond invaders than most towns I saw , and crowds of ...
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Common terms and phrases
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