MIGRATION, IDENTITY AND CHANGE FOR YOUNG HEROES IN JOHN MCGAHERN’S FICTION
MIGRATION, IDENTITY AND CHANGE FOR YOUNG HEROES IN JOHN MCGAHERN’S FICTION

Summary/Abstract: Torn between traditions, the sense of belonging to local communities and the urge to find a better living, young adult migrants are in John McGahern’s prose both heroes and victims. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections and layers of their family environment and past, and of a fragile route to individual success and failure. Both male and female characters feel rather confined when placed in urban sites, and their education limits employment opportunities, while the degraded and degrading human topoi are bitterly scrutinized in a blend of tragic and comedy. Examples taken from the collections of short stories and novels attest that protagonists oscillate between physical and mental departures and arrivals, easy gain and shallow feelings that imprint characters a perceptible change and low self-confidence, despite a vibrant and apparently friendly urban fabric.

• Details
• Contents