CROSS-CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS: ANGLO- IRISH AMBIVALENCE IN ELIZABETH BOWEN’S “THE LAST SEPTEMBER”
CROSS-CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS: ANGLO- IRISH AMBIVALENCE IN ELIZABETH BOWEN’S “THE LAST SEPTEMBER”

Summary/Abstract: The term Anglo-Irish was first used in the 18th century, to describe a social class whose members were of British origin but lived and worked in Ireland and who enjoyed privileges as the ruling class, from the 17th century up to the time of Irish independence, at the beginning of the 20th century. The phrase Anglo-Irish captures in itself the ambivalent nature and cultural hybridity of those caught under its label, and it expresses both identity and otherness. It can be said that the national group of the Anglo-Irish at the same time incorporates and resists Irish and British traditions. The events chronicled by Elizabeth Bowen in The Last September are anchored in the troubled times of the second decade of the twentieth century, period marked by the rebellion of the Irish, which eventually led to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The novel is concerned with the decaying lifestyle of the Anglo-Irish at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Anglo-Irish characters in the novel are torn between openly expressing their sympathy towards the Irish and the censorship they have to inflict upon themselves in order to avoid the threat of violence. For them, sympathising with the Irish desire to be free from English control meant compromising their safety and allowing the collapse of the Anglo-Irish way of life. Bowen offers a detailed examination of the Anglo-Irish class at the end of their Ascendancy, suggesting that the inevitability of Irish independence signified the downfall of their class and privileges, while still clinging to their past glories. Key words: post-colonialism; Elizabeth Bowen; hybridity; cross-culture

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