When Irish Literature Encountered Formosa: On the Incident of Tabani and Kikuchi Kan’s The Son of the Rebel

Abstract

Ireland had been under England’s rule since the medieval period. From the late 19th century until the early 20th century, Irish writers like W.B. Yeats, Synge, Lady Gregory and A.E. (George William Russell), and so on adopted from Irish folk tales, folk songs, Gaelic traditions as well as absorbed the customs of the Irish people and the local color to their works. Through popularizing the movement of Gaelic Revival, the consciousness of the Irish nation and the Irish culture was awakening; finally, the Irish won independence from England in 1922. The movement of Gaelic Revival also spread to East Asia, including the related colonial issues such as the subjectivity of the nation and national identity, expansion to the periphery of the Japanese empire, and a colonized Taiwan and Chosun. The main purpose of this project is to explore how the movement of the Gaelic Revival affected Taiwan under Japanese rule and how the Irish experiences inspired the Taiwanese to create their own “Formosa” experiences. Moreover, this project will explore how the imagination of Irish literature crossed over the boundary to encounter Formosa to inspire Taiwan to imagine Taiwan “herself” as well as to create their “own” Formosa ideology.