The Unspoken Menace

Representations of tuberculosis in early nineteenth-century Irish fiction stand in marked contrast with later writing. They are notable for the surprising near absence of tubercular subjects, whereas in subsequent narratives we typically find the realistic portrayal of individual sufferers. It will help us to understand this absence if we consider the issues predominating in Ireland during the period. While the disease is lurking everywhere in early nineteenth-century Ireland, it is almost always pushed beyond the margins of fictional representation by the burning concerns of the day. Fever and famine stalked the country, and Irish society was further profoundly affected by two landmark events: the Act of Union in January 1801 and Catholic Emancipation in 1829. I examine a selection of novels written during this period, in which tuberculosis serves an allegorical function if it appears at all, concentrating on Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent, Owenson’s The Wild Irish Girl, and Griffin’s The Collegians. Attention to the representation of bodily disorder, sickness, and death in these pre-Famine narratives will perhaps explain the virtual absence of tubercular subjects, revealing the reasons behind the omission and an understanding of the ways in which illness and suffering are deployed.