Author

Becky Tynan

Date

5-11-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

In Ireland, the Great Famine of the 1840s caused not only hunger and starvation, but also diseases, emigration, and a rupture in the social framework. Many social critics of the time argued that a lack of food came from an imbalance in society between those who could afford to eat and those who could not. Hunger was described as a disease because British colonial society depended on feeding citizens from its economic and political menu. Irish people under British landlords lacked the ability to own land outright and this supported an inequality in land ownership that in turn affected government representation. Irish history shows how a society that keeps a nation hungry also controls what there is to consume. The State needs citizens to buy what it is selling, because economically that's how the cycle of consumption continues.

Department

English

Thesis Comittee

Dr. Ellen Scheible, Thesis Advisor

Dr. Sarah Wiggins, Committee Member

Dr. Halina Adams, Committee Member

Copyright and Permissions

Original document was submitted as an Honors Program requirement. Copyright is held by the author.

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