Colm Tóibín and post-nationalist Ireland: redefining family through alterity

Abstract

In nationalist Ireland, definitions of family have traditionally followed a hetero-normative and sexist pattern whereby husbands and wives fulfilled deeply unequal roles. Moreover, the notion of family has been too often idealized as a site of peace and unconditional love, its members being united by unbreakable bonds of mutual affection. In Colm Tóibín’s fiction, “traditional” families tend to be dysfunctional and the relations between their members become strained because of emotional distance, regrets and distrust. However, Tóibín’s protagonists do find their sense of home and domesticity outside the traditional parameters of family. In this regard, this paper intends to analyze the manner in which Tóibín de-stabilizes canonical definitions through his revisionist agenda and his inscription of alternative forms of family. In order to shed light on these points, I shall refer to his novels The South (1990), The Heather Blazing (1992), The Blackwater Lightship (1999) and his short stories “A Long Winter” (Mothers and Sons, 2006), “Two Women” and “The Street” (The Empty Family, 2010).

En el ideario nacionalista irlandés, cualquier definición de familia seguía un patrón heteronormativo y sexista en el que hombres y mujeres debían desempeñar roles profundamente opuestos y desiguales. Además, la noción de familia ha sido, a menudo, objeto de idealizaciones que la caracterizaban como remanso de paz, concordia y amor mutuo e incondicional entre sus miembros. En las obras de Colm Tóibín, las relaciones familiares vienen marcadas por distanciamientos emocionales, desconfianzas y arrepentimientos. Sin embargo, los protagonistas en sus obras sí encuentran en otros individuos un sentido de hogar y domesticidad que va más allá del modelo tradicional de familia. En este artículo se va a analizar la manera en que Tóibín desestabiliza el concepto canónico de tal institución mediante una visión revisionista y una inscripción alternativa de familia. Para ilustrar estos argumentos, me referiré a sus novelas The South (1990), The Heather Blazing (1992), The Blackwater Lightship (1999) y a sus relatos cortos “A Long Winter” (Mothers and Sons, 2006), “Two Women” y “The Street” (The Empty Family, 2010).