A Study On Thomas Moore's Homeland Complex In Irish Melodies

Irish Melodies,Irish patriotic poet Thomas Moore's masterpiece,honestly conveys Irish people's fatigue of their sufferings and longing for an intimate homeland in the early nineteenth century.Hence,the Irish national identity issues and the geographical images of nature,place and homeland,especially the theme of homeland nostalgia and ecological criticism in post-colonialism contained in these images,arrest widespread attention,while Moore's feelings towards Ireland and his self-identity in the light of local writing are few probed into.Based on that understanding,this thesis interprets the homeland world presented in Irish Melodies in the light of Nostrand's homeland theory,to analyze Moore's desire for emotional attachment to and a sense of identity with homeland,thus to explore the causes and ways out of homeland complex.To be specific,this thesis delves into Moore's homeland complex from the perspectives of emotional attachment and the sense of identity.Initially,the thesis analyzes the deteriorated homeland presented in Irish Melodies from the dimension of emotional attachment.Geographically,the sharp contrast between gloomy landscape in reality and the intimate homeland in memory strikes a melancholy chord.This situation is deepened by the agricultural/industrial crisis and depression,the frequent political turmoil against the colonization from England,and the marginalization of Irish language,its traditional artistic form and Celtic culture.Facing with such critical status quo,Moore attempts to record the Celtic Ireland's geographical and cultural landscape,to recover his emotional attachment to the Celtic homeland.Based on the above research,the thesis traces Moore's development of his sense of identity,to review his anxiety of self-identification and attempt of reconstructing self-identity from both individual and national layers.As an individual,Moore's diasporic experience induced his anxiety of rootlessness,which pushed him to complete an Ireland regression both physically and spiritually.As an Irish writer,because of English cultural invasion and the marginalization of Irish Celtic culture,Moore is extremely anxious about the Irish identity and her fate.In order to dispel thisintensified anxiety,Moore attempts to infiltrate folklore into his poetry to remodel Irish national literature,which further contributes to the construction of Irish nationalism and inspiration of Irish people's patriotic enthusiasm.Consequently,Moore expects to reconstruct a proper Irish identity in the era of British nation forging.Briefly,in the light of Nostrand's homeland theory,this thesis unscrambles Moore's homeland writing presented in Irish Melodies,to study his representation and causes of strong emotional attachment to homeland and his development of sense of identity,thus to provide a new perspective to study Moore's Irish Melodies,his and even other Irish national writers' literary thoughts.