Home as representation : space and identity in Edna O'Brien's Saints and sinners (2011)

Abstract

In this dissertation I explore a group of stories from the collection Saints and sinners (2011) by Irish author Edna O'Brien (1930- ), whose prolific production spans from the 1960s to the present. For the study, I used both Augé's (2000) approaches to places and non-places and Heidegger's (1971) notion of building as dwelling, among others, in order to examine the ways in which the characters in the short stories under analysis create their homes in postmodern times. My focus was specifically on the construction of place in the stories and on women and men's experiences during their continuous search for a home, which eventually defines their identity. As results, I provide a description of homes as represented in the stories and a classification of places and their presence in identity construction. In view of those results, I sought to confirm my hypothesis that in Saints and sinners both space and identity are articulated as representations that the narrators and characters temporarily make theirs in order to create transient homes since there is a clear impossibility of truly permanent ones. I hope that the findings of this work provide useful insight for a better understanding of the issue and a broader comprehension of the significance of home in the framing of our still provisional identities.