Date Awarded
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Advisor
Hiroshi Kitamura
Committee Member
Andrew Fisher
Committee Member
Hannah Rosen
Abstract
These Graves and Ruinous Houses': The Role of Domestic Items and Spaces in Revolutionary Ireland" focuses on the events of the 1916 Easter Uprising, when a small number of Irish rebels staged a four-day-long rebellion in Dublin in order to proclaim Ireland's independence from Britain. Primarily analyzing the writings of Margaret Skinnider in conjunction with twentieth-century items catalogued in the National Museum of Ireland, this paper explores the ways in which domestic items and spaces were perceived and subsequently used as tools of rebellion in a particular historical arena. in it, I argue that through the use of domestic items and places for political purposes (and vice versa), both male and female revolutionaries and citizens witnessed a blending of societal roles. Spaces traditionally associated with masculinity and femininity experienced cohesion, often forcing individual actors to work across gendered lines towards a common political goal. This study likewise explores the theme of need in a politically and militarily turbulent time: both the need for transforming items and spaces to suit political purposes when other resources are scarce, and the appearance of small pockets of social change resulting from the need for political union against a common enemy. "'So Pertinacious Has Been the Misery': Othering the Irish in The Illustrated London News, 1845-1849" evaluates the visual and textual rhetoric employed by a popular British news publication called The Illustrated London News during the mid-nineteenth century. One of the major events the paper covered was the Great Famine, which decimated Britain's neighboring Ireland during the mid-nineteenth century, from about 1845 to 1849. as Ireland operated under the jurisdiction of the British government at the time, the events of the Potato Famine as both a spectacle and a shame were presented as being of interest to consumers of the British press. as such, the publication capitalized on the repeated theme of "Irish misery," representing the Irish as miserable in their destitution, physical and mental illness, and their rampant Catholicism. Through use of such visual and textual rhetoric, the publication was able to influence, manipulate, and ultimately control the famine discourse. Furthermore, I contend that The Illustrated London News' iconography of pity – and the pitiful – reinforces the othering of the miserable Irish as a way to jettison the culpability of the British government for the events and repercussions of the Great Famine.
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-et9t-tm28
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Rhoa, Maddison Jane, "These Graves and Ruinous Houses/So Pertinacious Has Been the Misery" (2018). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1550153862.
http://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-et9t-tm28
