Ophelia de Vere

  Racism is a matter not simply of individual psychology or pathology, but of patterns of cultural representation deeply ingrained within the practices, discourses and subjectivities of Western societies. (Barker 2008: 266) Some feared the Act of Union would lead to an Anglo-Irish assimilation and ultimately the annihilation of Irish culture and identity. Others hailed it as a blessing, freeing Ireland from its colonial yoke. Maria Edgeworth belonged to the latter group. Her didactic Irish writings theorise, recognising English hegemony, that an Anglo-Irish hybrid state could be reached through education, thus battling the evils of raising capitalism, absenteeism, and the biased, somewhat racist, Irish misrepresentation throughout Britain. As such, Maria Edgeworth’s The Absentee is a quasi-utopian literary counter proposal in favour of a true union of English and Irish culture. By establishing a hero with a hyphenated identity and a mission civilatrice as the paragon of Anglo-Iris...