Towards a “Narratology of Otherness”: Colum McCann, Ireland, and a New Transcultural Approach

This essay gestures towards a new type of analysis of contemporary transcultural fiction. While existing analyses of such fiction tend to evaluate the ethical or political import thereof (often via the work of Gayatri Spivak or Homi Bhabha), by devising a narratological lens the focus may be shifted away from such ideological concerns. This is not to disavow the importance of such concerns; rather it is to illuminate the formal ingenuities enacted by certain transcultural writers, the majority of which have been heretofore overlooked. Taking Ireland as a case study, this new lens—this ‘Narratology of Otherness’—will be devised by examining the work of Irish-American author Colum McCann. This will at once shed new light on the formal nuances of McCann’s oeuvre, particularly his 2006 novel Zoli, whilst also revealing the implications such an approach may have for both Irish and transcultural literary debates more broadly.