Ireland and Cultural Theory : The Mechanics of Authenticity

Ireland and Cultural Theory is a unique and timely collection offering the first major assessment of how theoretical readings of 'Ireland' and Irish culture have begun to question the grounds of debate in Irish studies. Contributions engage with the concept of the 'authentic' in Irish culture through analyses of film, television and literature, emigration, and institutional critical practice. This lively and challenging volume will be of interest to lecturers and students in the field of cultural studies, Irish studies and critical theory. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-6 ‘... maybe that’s just Blarney’: Irish Culture and the Persistence of Authenticity....Pages 7-28 Decolonization and Criticism: Towards a Theory of Irish Critical Discourse....Pages 29-49 ‘Pestilence on their backs, famine in their stomachs’: the Racial Construction of Irishness and the Irish in Victorian Britain....Pages 50-76 Gendered Irishness in Britain: Changing Constructions....Pages 77-98 Breaking the ‘Cracked Mirror’: Binary Oppositions in the Culture of Contemporary Ireland....Pages 99-118 Troubles, Terminus and The Treaty....Pages 119-135 Reading Responsibility in Castle Rackrent....Pages 136-161 ‘Could anyone write it?’: Place in Tom Paulin’s Poetry....Pages 162-192 The Body’s in the Post: Contemporary Irish Poetry and the Dispersed Body....Pages 193-209 Questioning the Frame: Hybridity, Ireland and the Institution....Pages 210-228 Back Matter....Pages 229-249 "Ireland and Cultural Theory is a collection of new work in Irish studies, assessing how theoretical readings of 'Ireland' have begun to question the established grounds of debate in Irish culture. Through analyses of film, television, literature, emigration and institutional critical practice, these essays examine how the notion of the 'authentic' interacts with and underlies the construction of Irish identity and its cultural forms and politics."--BOOK JACKET The idea for this collection of essays was inspired by the belief that the study of Irish culture was in the process of transformation, with new critical practices and theoretical frameworks almost inevitably challenging the orthodoxies of how Ireland is read and what is read as 'Ireland'.