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Georgia Southern University

In Fairyland Or Thereabout: The Fairies as Nationalist Symbol in Irish Literature by and after William Allingham

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>This essay is a look at a little known Irish poet, William Allingham, who invokes the fairy as a vehicle for a political change in Ireland. It offers a close reading of a few of his poems as well as historically approaches the use of fairies in the popular culture of the nineteenth century. In Chapter I, I use an historical approach to discuss the biography of William Allingham and his place in Irish literature as a poet we have neglected. I also discuss a cultural study of the portrayal and use of the fairy in the nineteenth century. This chapter begins my essay as a foundation of Allingham's knowledge of the fairy from childhood. In Chapter II, I use a New Critical Approach to discuss the use of the fairy as a nationalist symbol in an amalgamation of Allingham's works. This chapter addresses Allingham's Diary as well as his poems Vivant! and Fireside Magic in order to discuss Allingham's religio-cultural anxieties. In Chapter III, I discuss both W.B. Yeats and William Allingham in reference to their use of the scary fairy as a means of working out their anxieties over the future of Ireland. I discuss Yeats's "The Stolen Child" as well as Allingham's The Fairies and The Ban-shee, A Ballad of Ancient Erin. To conclude, I look at the use of fairies in the popular culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with an emphasis on Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Arts in English (M.A.)
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis (open access)
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Department of Literature and Philosophy
Year dc:date.available
2009

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Schell, Cassandra M.
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Joe Pellegrino
  • Mary Villeponteaux

Subjects

dc:subject × 22

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/169
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1169

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Georgia Southern University
Base URL
digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Schell, Cassandra M.. In Fairyland Or Thereabout: The Fairies as Nationalist Symbol in Irish Literature by and after William Allingham. Thesis (open access) thesis, 2009. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/169