This timely volume is a collection of essays by accomplished scholars who convincingly argue for the relevance of postcolonial theory in Ireland. Ireland and Postcolonial Theory fuses scholarship, politics, and culture, generating a forceful and radical critique of the legacy of colonialism in the history of Irish culture, while insisting that the consequences of colonialism continue to play themselves out in complex ways.

The first two essays focus on debates over how theories developed to explain the emergence of cultures, how colonialism relates to Ireland, and how Irish Studies has influenced the development of postcolonial critique internationally. Subsequent essays apply postcolonial perspectives to Irish cultural history, exploring such topics as the effect of the famine on Irish politics, and interactions between Ireland and India.

Contributors: Clare Carroll, Joe Cleary, David Lloyd, Luke Gibbons, Kevin Whelan, Seamus Deane, Amitav Ghosh, Joseph Lennon, Gauri Viswanathan, and Edward Said

About the Author

Clare Carroll is associate professor of literature at the City University of New York. She is the author of Circe's Cup, also published by the University of Notre Dame Press.

Patricia King is an archivist and also lectures at the City University of New York.

Reviews

"... interesting and readable...." -Catholic Library World

"...this book offers an extensive survey of the intersection of those two fields and asks from a variety of vantages whether and how Ireland should be considered in light of postcolonial theory." -Virginia Quarterly Review

"...fine essays on the intersection of Ireland and postcolonial theory." -New Hibernia Review

"The essays in this remarkable compilation all focus on the crucial question of whether or not Ireland was a colony, and whether its history is therefore...a colonial and subsequently a postcolonial one. This is no mere antiquarian or academic squabble, since what is at stake is nothing less than the whole question of Irish identity." -From the Afterword by Edward Said

Book Information
ISBN 9780268022877
Author Clare Carroll
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint University of Notre Dame Press
Publisher University of Notre Dame Press
Weight(grams) 404g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 15mm