愛爾蘭在1960年代經歷一場劇烈的國族氛圍轉變，從保守的國族主義邁向現代化以及隨之而起的反國族修正主義。派屈克‧馬克白的《屠夫男孩》書寫於1990年代，正是愛爾蘭經歷凱爾特之虎經濟奇蹟的時候；小說的背景則設在1960年代的轉型期。因此《屠夫男孩》可視為馬克白在快速現代化的1990年代回顧1960年代愛爾蘭經濟現代化的開端、並藉此重新審視逐漸衰微的國族主義以及邁向現代化所伴隨的陣痛。評論家經常將小說對於愛爾蘭國族主義的批判歸類為修正主義的思維。然而，這種修正主義的詮釋方式卻無法完整解釋小說對於愛爾蘭現代化的矛盾情緒。本篇論文試圖以小說的志異傳統來進一步挑戰並彌補過於簡化的修正主義閱讀策略。藉由凸顯「志異尚古主義」的概念，本篇論文主張，雖然《屠夫男孩》對於保守的國族主義多所批判，但是它同時對於愛爾蘭大步現代化所帶來的恐怖敲下一記警鐘。

Ireland in the 1960s underwent a pivotal transformation of national ethos, from conservative nationalism to modernization which coincided with anti-nationalist revisionism. Written in the early 1990s when Ireland enjoyed its Celtic Tiger economic miracle, Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy looks back at this transitional period to re-assess the waning nationalism and to investigate the throes concomitant with the onset of modernization. The novel’s critique of Irish nationalism has often been aligned with the revisionist attempt to debunk the nationalist meta-narrative. This revisionist reading of the novel, however, fails to account for the novel’s ambivalence toward Ireland’s modernizing project. This essay, drawing from the novel’s Gothic influence, intends to complicate and supplement the often simplistic revisionist approach to the novel. Foregrounding the concept of Gothic antiquarianism, this essay argues that while The Butcher Boy is critical of conservative nationalism, it also sounds a cautious note to Ireland’s relentless modernization which registers a peculiar horror.