An Incongruous Life-World: A Cultural Phenomenology of The Tailor And Ansty

Abstract

This article accomplishes a twofold purpose by developing a synthetic methodology for studying the phenomena of cultural objectification, and by focusing an implementation of this methodology on the significance of a particular cultural product, The Tailor and Ansty, which evolved from the memoir of the Irish writer, Eric Cross. From the standpoint of method, Cross’s book merely provides the occasion, the case study, for the ostensive elaboration of the various aspects that comprise this form of analysis, which involves unpacking the cultural meanings of the subjective activities that result in cultural productions, that is, the analysis of cultural objectification. Based upon phenomenological description, the investigation has been created through the synthesis of cultural (the axiological summit of a people), sociological (the objective and subjective structures that inform the processes that determine association), and geographical (the dialectic between culture and place) strains of phenomenological analysis. From the perspective of focusing on this specific cultural product, the methodological synthesis serves only as an instrument for the ultimate purpose, which is to reveal the historico-cultural spirit that the text manifests.¹

For the preparation of this article, Christopher Quinn agreed to be my cultural informant. Mr. Quinn is an Irish expatriot who has lived in the United States since 1980. He returns to Ireland every three years for a visit with family and travel. I am indebted to him for his critiques of a couple of drafts, his conversations about Irish culture, and his willingness to impart aspects of his own experience as an Irishman.