Post-colonialism, as an academic discipline, analyzes, explains, and responds to the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. The Irish American writer Frank McCourt won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1996 memoir Angela’s Ashes, a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood. Later in 1999, he authored ‘Tis, which continues the narrative of his life, picking up from the end of Angela’s Ashes and detailing his life after he returned to New York. Being mostly analyzed within the framework of personal growth or feminism, Frank McCourt’s memoir, therefore, has been regarded as a motivational life story. Within the postcolonial context, however, his memoir can be interpreted from a quite different perspective. Although Ireland has never been a colony of America, certain critical concepts from post-colonialism can be applied to the exploration of the identity formation of Frank McCourt.
A Postcolonial Reading of Frank McCourt
