Ciaran Carson: Indigenous Transnationalism

Correspondence(s) inThe Pen Friendby Ciaran Carson

“…A way of letting the story tell itself. 14 The fountain-pen is also a recurring element in Carson's oeuvre. In Shamrock Tea, a prose work published in 2001, the young protagonist, also named Carson, had been presented with a "Parker Duofold" by his mother who wished her son to become a writer, in the wake of his great-uncle ironically named Augustine Joyce.…”

“…This composition, which is also to be found in such prose works as The Star Factory or Shamrock Tea, is made of "fragmented, discontinuous forms, ways of extending the boundaries of self into unknown or unofficial territory", 30 as Elmer Kennedy-Andrews writes. This leads to the concept of "nomadic" writing, since "narration no longer serves the narrator's need for self-location and selfaffirmation".…”

“…11 Indeed, the writing relies heavily on a system of correspondences and repetitions which are a way to reach a new universe full of revelations for the reader, what Carson has called "a language beyond language". 12 Significantly, the structure of the book is very formal and stylised, allowing for all kinds of variations and modulations.…”