Debunking protestant celticism: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s language appropriation in ‘The Quare Gander’ and ‘an account of some strange disturbances in Aungier street’

Abstract

Colonial domination has been exercised by many means, exhibiting varied forms and expressions, one of the most prominent ones being language. Postcolonial countries and writers usually have to contend with the dilemma of which language to use, whether to employ their own native tongues, thus fostering national invigoration and a demise of colonial past, or whether the language of the coloniser is a valid tool for national, postcolonial expression. The Irish case is paradoxical: while Ireland possesses a language different to the tongue of the colonisers, by the time literacy was widespread, it had lost its vantage point among the majority of the population, especially the educated elites.