Ireland and Cultural Theory: The Mechanics of Authenticity

260 Pages·1999·27.117 MB·English

by  Colin Graham, Richard Kirkland (eds.)

IRELAND AND CULTURAL THEORY
Ireland and
Cultural Theory
The Mechanics of Authenticity
Edited by
Colin Graham
Lecturer in English
University of Huddersfield
and
Richard Kirkland
Lecturer in English
Keele University
First published in Great Britain 1999 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-333-67597-7 ISBN 978-1-349-27149-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-27149-8
First published in the United States of America 1999 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-21290-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ireland and cultural theory : the mechanics of authenticity I edited
by Colin Graham and Richard Kirkland.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-21290-2 (cloth)
1. Ireland-Civilization-Theory, etc. 2. English literature
-Irish authors-History and criticism-Theory, etc. 3. National
characteristics, Irish, in literature. 4. National characteristics,
Irish. 5. Ireland-In literature. 6. Irish-Great Britain.
7. Culture. I. Graham, Colin, 1967- II. Kirkland, Richard.
DA925.163 1998
941.5-dc21 97-32314
CIP
Selection and editorial matter © Colin Graham and Richard Kirkland 1999
Text© Macmillan Press Ltd 1999
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
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written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
109876543 2 1
08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99
Contents
Notes on the Contributors vii
Acknowledgements x
1 Introduction 1
Colin Graham and Richard Kirkland
2 ' ... maybe that's just Blarney': Irish Culture
and the Persistence of Authenticity 7
Colin Graham
3 Decolonization and Criticism: Towards a Theory
of Irish Critical Discourse 29
Gerry Smyth
4 'Pestilence on their backs, famine in their
stomachs': the Racial Construction of Irishness
and the Irish in Victorian Britain 50
Jim Mac Laughlin
5 Gendered Irishness in Britain: Changing
Constructions 77
Bronwen Walter
6 Breaking the 'Cracked Mirror': Binary Oppositions
in the Culture of Contemporary Ireland 99
Shaun Richards
7 Troubles, Terminus and The Treaty 119
Lance Pettitt
8 Reading Responsibility in Castle Rackrent 136
Claire Connolly
9 'Could anyone write it?': Place in Tom Paulin's
Poetry 162
Eamonn Hughes
v
vi Contents
10 The Body's in the Post: Contemporary Irish Poetry
and the Dispersed Body 193
Tom Herron
11 Questioning the Frame: Hybridity, Ireland and
the Institution 210
Richard Kirkland
Bibliography 229
Index 245
Notes on the Contributors
Claire Connolly lectures in the School of English Studies, Uni
versity of Wales, Cardiff. She is a member of Cardiff's Centre for
Critical and Cultural Theory, and is writing a book on gender
and nation in the novels of Maria Edgeworth and Lady Morgan.
She has edited Maria Edgeworth's Letters for Literary Ladies (Every
man, 1995) as well as two volumes of the Pickering collected Maria
Edgeworth (1996).
Colin Graham is a lecturer in English at the University of Hud
dersfield. He studied at the Queen's University of Belfast and
the University of Bristol and was formerly Junior Research Fel
low at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's, Belfast. He has
published articles on post-colonial theory and Ireland, post
nationalism, the subaltern, Derek Mahon and Maria Edgeworth.
He has edited the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and of
Robert Browning and is author of Ideologies of Epic (Manchester
University Press, 1998).
Tom Herron is a lecturer in English at the University of Aber
deen, where he is completing a doctoral thesis on The Field Day
Anthology of Irish Writing. He has published essays on Ciaran Carson
and Irish/Northern Irish nationalism, on the Field Day Anthol
ogy and post-colonial theory, and on the Anthology as commu
nicative space/act. He is currently working on two projects: the
first on masculinity in Frank McGuinness's drama, and the sec
ond on interrogations of social pathology within national narra
tives in the novels of Patrick McCabe and Colm T6ibin.
Eamonn Hughes lectures in the School of English, Queen's Uni
versity of Belfast, Northern Ireland, specializing in Irish writing.
He is the editor of Culture and Politics in Northern Ireland 1960-
1990 (Open University Press, 1991) and has published widely on
Irish writing.
vii
viii Notes on the Contributors
Richard Kirkland is a lecturer in English at Keele University. He
has published widely on Northern Irish poetry, fiction and cul
ture and is the author of Literature and Culture in Northern Ireland
since 1965: Moments of Danger (Longman, 1996). Before coming to
Keele he was Teaching Fellow in the School of English, Queen's
University of Belfast.
Jim Mac Laughlin, a graduate of Syracuse University, New York,
is a political geographer at University College Cork. His current
research interests are in nationalism, ethnic conflict, political
regionalism and racism. He has published extensively on these
and related topics and on ideology in the social sciences. His
most recent works include Ireland: The Emigrant Nursery and the
World Economy and Travellers and Ireland: Whose History, Whose
Country? His teaching interests are in Latin American studies,
emigration and political geography.
Lance Pettitt was an Irish/United Kingdom Government Exchange
Scholar at University College, Dublin. He is Director of Irish Studies
at StMary's University College, Strawberry Hill. His research in
terests include: the British media and Ireland, Irish cinema, sexu
ality in popular culture and Irish migrant writing. Publications
include articles in Irish Studies Review, The Sunday Tribune and
South Atlantic Quarterly. His essay on gay representation in con
temporary Irish film appears in Sex, Nation and Dissent (Cork
University Press, 1996). He has been the editor of the British
Association for Irish Studies Newsletter since 1994.
Shaun Richards is Head of Literature at Staffordshire Univer
sity. A graduate of the Universities of Wales, Sussex, York (Toronto)
and Essex he has published widely on the cultural politics of
twentieth-century Irish Drama with articles and chapters on, among
others, Yeats, Synge, Shaw, O'Casey, Deevy, Murphy, Field Day,
Parker and Heaney. He is co-author (with David Cairns) of Writ
ing Ireland: Colonialism, Nationalism and Culture (Manchester Uni
versity Press, 1988) and is currently working on a book on
twentieth-century Irish drama.
Gerry Smyth was born and educated in Dublin. He worked as a
professional musician in Spain and England before returning to
full-time education. He has a BA in Literature, Life and Thought
Notes on the Contributors ix
from Liverpool John Moores University, an MAin Cultural Studies
from the University of Lancaster, and his Ph.D. research, from
which Chapter 3 of this book is adapted, was undertaken at Staf
fordshire University. He has published articles on Matthew Arnold,
Neil Jordan's The Crying Game, Irish cultural criticism, and is author
of The Novel and the Nation: Studies in the New Irish Fiction (Pluto,
1997).
Bronwen Walter is Senior Lecturer in Geography at Anglia Poly
technic University. Her longstanding interest is contemporary Irish
migration to Britain, her recent research focusing on Irish women's
experience in Britain and America. She has published in academic
journals and London Irish community group reports. She is
co-author, with Mary Hickman of the Irish Studies Centre, Uni
versity of North London, of a report for Racial Equality on anti
Irish discrimination, which was completed in 1996.
Acknowledgements
The editors would like to thank Shaun Richards of Staffordshire
University for the advice and support he offered during the com
pilation of this volume.
The editors and publishers are grateful to the following for
permission to reprint copyright material:
Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd: excerpts from
Door into the Dark by Seamus Heaney. Copyright 1969 by Seamus
Heaney; excerpts from Field Work by Seamus Heaney. Copyright
1979 by Seamus Heaney; excerpts from North by Seamus Heaney.
Copyright 1975 by Seamus Heaney; excerpts from Station Island
by Seamus Heaney. Copyright 1984 by Seamus Heaney; excerpts
from Fivemiletown by Tom Paulin. Copyright 1987 by Tom Paulin;
excerpts from Liberty Tree by Tom Paulin. Copyright 1983 by Tom
Paulin; excerpts from A State of justice by Tom Paulin. Copyright
1977 by Tom Paulin; excerpts from The Strange Museum by Tom
Paulin. Copyright 1980 by Tom Paulin; excerpts from Walking a
Line by Tom Paulin. Copyright 1994 by Tom Paulin; excerpt from
Our Exagmination Round His Factification For Incamination Of Work
In Progress ed. by Samuel Beckett. Copyright Faber 1961.
Reproduced by permission of Frederick Warne and Co. (Penguin
UK): excerpt from Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-
1991 by Salman Rushdie (Grant/Penguin Books, 1991). Copyright
1985, 1991 by Salman Rushdie.
Reprinted by permission of The Gallery Press: excerpt from The
Rough Field by John Montague. Copyright 1989 by John Montague.
Reprinted by permission of A.P. Watt Limited and Michael and
Anne Yeats: excerpt from Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
by W.B. Yeats.
Reprinted by permission of Raven Arts Press: Michael O'Loughlin
poems from Another Nation, New and Selected Poems by Michael
O'Loughlin, published by New Island Books in Ireland and Arc
Publications in Britain.
X