Ireland and Postcolonial Studies Theory, Discourse, Utopia [Hardcover]

A pioneering study of the development of one of the key critical discourses in contemporary Irish studies, this book covers all the major figures, publications and debates within Irish postcolonial criticism, delivering a commentary on this diverse body of work as well as positioning Irish postcolonial criticism within the wider postcolonial field.Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Ireland: 'A Supreme Postcolonial Instance'? Field Day and Irish Postcolonial Criticism Irish Postcolonial Criticism and the Utopian Impulse Postcolonial Metacriticism  The 'Second Wave' Ireland, Gender and Postcolonialism Fanon's One Big Idea: Revising Postcolonial Studies and Irish Studies Conclusion: Postcolonial Studies and Contemporary Politics Bibliography Index

'This outstanding book offers the first comprehensive survey of the postcolonial turn in literary and cultural studies. Not least of its merits is its clarity of exposition, using a chronological, thematic and authorial focus to untangle an often complex skein of intellectual positions. What is particularly impressive in Flannery's study is his capacity to show how even the smallest nuances in recent Irish critical debates may challenge not only Irish intellectual orthodoxies but also of some of the dominant paradigms in postcolonial theory. Flannery's intervention represents a considerable advance on the sterile revisionist/post-revisionist debate, or literary versus historical approaches to Irish culture, thus opening up new interdisciplinary vistas on the emergent critical field of Irish Studies.' - Luke Gibbons, Donald R. Keough Family Professor of Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame, USA

'Flannery asks trenchant and vexing questions about the relationship between postcolonial criticism as a practice and Irish literary studies as a politics - questions that illuminate the shared, contentious ground between the two and demand attention from students of the post-colony across tlS-