'Isn't it your own country?': The stranger in nineteenth-century Irish literature

Published version used with kind permission of Modern Humanities Research Association.This article discusses the nineteenth-century British obsession with travel in Ireland, and the representation of the stranger in three novels soon after the Union: Owenson's The Wild Irish Girl, Edgeworth's The Absentee, and Banim's The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century. These Irish writers use the stranger to expose misconception and urge reconciliation, but the stranger undergoes an evolution in their works, from English, to Anglo-Irish, to Irish — from colonizer coming to terms with the actions of his ancestors, to Anglo-Irish landlord taking responsibility for his land and tenants, to Irishman embracing his national identity and forging his own destiny.This article was submitted to the RAE2008 for the University of Chester - English Language & Literature