Migration Beyond the Second Generation: Ancestry and Identity in Historical and Fictional Narratives. [abstract].

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of ancestry and cultural identity in texts which fall into various genres, including history and fiction. The main focus will be on the Irish-Australian authors Thomas Keneally and Christopher Koch, and the ways in which they deploy ancestry to aid in the construction of a hyphenated Irish-Australian cultural identity. It will suggest further possibilities for research into ancestry so that familial origins can be seen as rhizomes rather than roots.