Exploring An t-Oileanach (anglicised as The Islandman), an indigenous Irish-language memoir written by Tomas O Criomhthain (Tomas O'Crohan), Mairead Nic Craith charts the development of O Criomhthain as an author; the writing, illustration, and publication of the memoir in Irish; and the reaction to its portrayal of an authentic, Gaelic lifestyle in Ireland. As she probes the appeal of an island fisherman's century-old life-story to readers in several languages-considering the memoir's global reception in human, literary and artistic terms-Nic Craith uncovers the indelible marks of O Criomhthain's writing closer to home: the Blasket Island Interpretive Centre, which seeks to institutionalize the experience evoked by the memoir, and a widespread writerly habit amongst the diasporic population of the Island. Through the overlapping frames of literary analysis, archival work, interviews, and ethnographic examination, nostalgia emerges and re-emerges as a central theme, expressed in different ways by the young Irish state, by Irish-American descendants of Blasket Islanders in the US today, by anthropologists, and beyond.

About the Author

Mairead Nic Craith is Professor and Chair in Cultural Heritage and Anthropological Studies and Director of the Intercultural Centre at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

Reviews

"Mairead Nic Craith shows great sensitivity towards her field. She manages to go well beyond a traditionalist or nostalgic interpretation of Tomas's memoir. She eventually shows that different sort of nostalgias are expressed in memoirs, at the intersection between a more local perspective and more external visions." (Laurent Sebastien Fournier, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, Vol. 30 (1), 2021)

Book Information
ISBN 9783030257743
Author Mairead Nic Craith
Format Paperback
Page Count 187
Imprint Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher Springer Nature Switzerland AG