Maria Edgeworth's Representation Of The Irish Subaltern In Castle Rackrent

Maria Edgeworth(1767-1849)is a distinguished Anglo-Irish woman writer.Castle Rackrent is her most distinctive work.The publication of this novel marks the beginning of British regional novel.Set in Ireland,this novel is a story about the decline of four generations of the Rackrent family.Through this novel,Edgeworth on the one hand describes the real life of Irish people and on the other hand consciously explores the possible ways to improve Irish social situation.Many Western critics have studied the cultural colonization and narrative style of this novel.However,Maria Edgeworth and her Castle Rackrent have not get received due attention in China.The term “subaltern” is used to refer to the people who are excluded by the mainstream political discourse.They are the group from different classes,but similarly forgotten by this society.Subaltern studies are finalized by the post-colonial feminist critic,G.C.Spivak,who expands the connotation of “the subaltern” to include the gendered subalterns who are under double oppression.Spivak exposes the epistemic violence of imperialism and the new control mechanism of colonization.At the same time,she also attempts to find an appropriate way for the subaltern to revolt and give their own voice.To study the representation of Irish subalterns in Castle Rackrent,this paper tries to analyze the Irish subalterns from three perspectives of race,class and gender in light of Spivak's post-colonial theory and reveals how the Irish subalterns are marginalized and excluded from the mainstream society,and how they defend their independence and freedom through different ways and voice for themselves.The first chapter analyzes how the native Irish as racial subaltern stick to the independence of Irish culture and language under the British hegemonic culture.There are two narrative voices in this novel,a voice from the narrator Thady who represents the colonized Irish;the other from the Editor who represents the British colonialist.The Editor,who holds the hegemonic discourse,tries to mold the native Irish as ignorance,illiteracy and debauchery and then twists their culture and language.But by protecting the Irish traditional culture and language,the colonized Irish struggle against British colonialists.Chapter Two mainly discusses about the Irish underclass as classed subaltern.Under the oppression of Anglo-Irish aristocracy,the Irish underclass fight against ruthless exploitation and finally reseize their land ownership in Ireland.The four masters of the Castle Rackrent exploit the poor and needy tenants which lead to their shabby condition.However,Jason Quirk,a representative of the classed subaltern,with his own intelligence and efforts,successfully becomes the new master of Castle Rackrent.Chapter Three analyzes how the Irish women as gendered subaltern finally voice for themselves by means of strategic resistance though they are reduced to the double other under the oppression of colonialism and patriarchy.All the three mistresses of Rackrent family are subjugated at different levels from their husbands,but by means of protecting their property and refusing to play the role as child bearers,the Rackrent wives finally leave Castle Rackrent and regain their freedom.By representing the Irish subalterns from different aspects,Castle Rackrent faithfully portrays the miserable life of the Irish people,and at the same time helps the readers see the subversive force in Irish subalterns who seek to recapture their discursive power through strategic resistances.By representing the Irish subalterns,Maria Edgeworth shows her great concerns about the fate of Ireland during British colonialism,and in the meantime,manifests that subalterns should keep their self-consciousness and struggle for the right to utter their voice when facing hegemonic oppression.