Conclusion - The Weight of the World

Summary

The Conclusion discusses the limits and achievements of Irish expatriate fiction and looks towards future developments. Because of a small domestic literary market, a globe-straddling diaspora and increasingly multiracial population, Irish literary expatriation appears likely to continue into the future though it will take new directions. World-facing expatriate novels can contribute usefully to the development of more internationalist-minded readerships and can stimulate rather than retard the domestic novel. However, it is never easy to surmount inherited ways of seeing the world and literature competes with stronger media that are corporate-owned or dominated by the leading states. The novel cannot create the world anew, then, but at its best can cultivate more worldly readers willing to think and act anew.