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This book uncovers a new genre of 'post-Agreement literature', consisting of a body of texts - fiction, poetry and drama - by Northern Irish writers who grew up during the Troubles but published their work in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement. In an attempt to demarcate the literary-aesthetic parameters of the genre, the book proposes a selective revision of postcolonial theories on 'liminality' through a subset of concepts such as 'negative liminality', 'liminal suspension' and 'liminal permanence.' These conceptual interventions, as the readings demonstrate, help articulate how the Agreement's rhetorical negation of the sectarian past and its aggressive neoliberal campaign towards a 'progressive' future breed new forms of violence that produce liminally suspended subject positions.
List of contents
Post-Agreement Northern Irish Literature: An Introduction.- 1. From Postcolonial to Post-Agreement: Theorising Northern Ireland's Negative Liminality.- 2. Retrospective (Re)Visions: Post-Agreement Fiction.- 3. Between the Lines: Post-Agreement Poetry.- 4. Performing 'Progress': Post-Agreement Drama.- Diagnosing the Post-Agreement Period: A Literary Detour.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.
About the author
Birte Heidemann is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair of Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Bremen, Germany. She is the co-editor of
From Popular Goethe to Global Pop(2013),
Reworking Postcolonialism (2015) and two special editions of the
Journal of Postcolonial Writing (vol. 47.5 and 48.3). Her current research project deals with post-conflict Sri Lankan literature.
Summary
This book uncovers a new genre of ‘post-Agreement literature’, consisting of a body of texts – fiction, poetry and drama – by Northern Irish writers who grew up during the Troubles but published their work in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement. In an attempt to demarcate the literary-aesthetic parameters of the genre, the book proposes a selective revision of postcolonial theories on ‘liminality’ through a subset of concepts such as ‘negative liminality’, ‘liminal suspension’ and ‘liminal permanence.’ These conceptual interventions, as the readings demonstrate, help articulate how the Agreement’s rhetorical negation of the sectarian past and its aggressive neoliberal campaign towards a ‘progressive’ future breed new forms of violence that produce liminally suspended subject positions.
