“The World is still Beautiful”: An Eco-philosophical Reading of Eugene McCabe’s Victims Trilogy
This paper focuses on Irish writer, playwright and television screenwriter Eugene McCabe’s fictional representation of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ in his trilogy Victims, published in the collection Heaven Lies about Us (2005). Living most of his life on his family farm on the Monaghan/Fermanagh b...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Asociación Española de Estudios Irlandeses
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Estudios Irlandeses |
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| Online Access: | https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/EI-18-Howes.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797869244245868544 |
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| author | Christina Angela Howes |
| author_facet | Christina Angela Howes |
| author_sort | Christina Angela Howes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper focuses on Irish writer, playwright and television screenwriter Eugene McCabe’s fictional representation of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ in his trilogy Victims, published in the collection Heaven Lies about Us (2005). Living most of his life on his family farm on the Monaghan/Fermanagh border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, McCabe had a deep understanding of the historically entrenched hatreds, bigotry and fundamentalisms of its inhabitants, and his fiction reflects the human tragedy underlying the violence. This paper draws on an eco-philosophical framework to suggest that by capturing the entanglement between the natural and cultural place-world McCabe’s poetics offers, from a liberal humanist perspective, an indictment of anthropocentric patriarchy at the root of violent dispute. McCabe’s literary world, evoking natural and cultural landscapes, encapsulates the absurdity of isolating territories via false political borders, marginalizing the value of bioregion and diversity and ignoring the vital oneness of humanity. Thus, though McCabe’s short stories are indeed culturally and politically specific, in shedding light on the self-destructiveness of human behaviour they are ultimately timeless and universal. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T00:09:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-156d9994ab8d45a7896cf88e34d74262 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1699-311X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T00:09:34Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Asociación Española de Estudios Irlandeses |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Estudios Irlandeses |
| spelling | doaj.art-156d9994ab8d45a7896cf88e34d742622023-03-16T12:07:33ZengAsociación Española de Estudios IrlandesesEstudios Irlandeses1699-311X2023-03-01181817218311702“The World is still Beautiful”: An Eco-philosophical Reading of Eugene McCabe’s Victims TrilogyChristina Angela Howes0 Universitat Internacional de Catalunya This paper focuses on Irish writer, playwright and television screenwriter Eugene McCabe’s fictional representation of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ in his trilogy Victims, published in the collection Heaven Lies about Us (2005). Living most of his life on his family farm on the Monaghan/Fermanagh border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, McCabe had a deep understanding of the historically entrenched hatreds, bigotry and fundamentalisms of its inhabitants, and his fiction reflects the human tragedy underlying the violence. This paper draws on an eco-philosophical framework to suggest that by capturing the entanglement between the natural and cultural place-world McCabe’s poetics offers, from a liberal humanist perspective, an indictment of anthropocentric patriarchy at the root of violent dispute. McCabe’s literary world, evoking natural and cultural landscapes, encapsulates the absurdity of isolating territories via false political borders, marginalizing the value of bioregion and diversity and ignoring the vital oneness of humanity. Thus, though McCabe’s short stories are indeed culturally and politically specific, in shedding light on the self-destructiveness of human behaviour they are ultimately timeless and universal.https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/EI-18-Howes.pdfeugene mccabe; victims trilogy; the troubles; eco-philosophy; place |
| spellingShingle | Christina Angela Howes “The World is still Beautiful”: An Eco-philosophical Reading of Eugene McCabe’s Victims Trilogy Estudios Irlandeses eugene mccabe; victims trilogy; the troubles; eco-philosophy; place |
| title | “The World is still Beautiful”: An Eco-philosophical Reading of Eugene McCabe’s Victims Trilogy |
| title_full | “The World is still Beautiful”: An Eco-philosophical Reading of Eugene McCabe’s Victims Trilogy |
| title_fullStr | “The World is still Beautiful”: An Eco-philosophical Reading of Eugene McCabe’s Victims Trilogy |
| title_full_unstemmed | “The World is still Beautiful”: An Eco-philosophical Reading of Eugene McCabe’s Victims Trilogy |
| title_short | “The World is still Beautiful”: An Eco-philosophical Reading of Eugene McCabe’s Victims Trilogy |
| title_sort | the world is still beautiful an eco philosophical reading of eugene mccabe s victims trilogy |
| topic | eugene mccabe; victims trilogy; the troubles; eco-philosophy; place |
| url | https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/EI-18-Howes.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christinaangelahowes theworldisstillbeautifulanecophilosophicalreadingofeugenemccabesvictimstrilogy |