Post-Agreement Northern Irish Literature (eBook)

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.

Contents 10
Acknowledgements 8
Chapter 1: Post-Agreement Northern Irish Literature: An Introduction 11
Notes 22
Chapter 2: From Postcolonial to Post-Agreement: Theorising Northern Ireland’s Negative Liminality 27
Postcolonial Peripheries: The Case of Northern Ireland 28
The Walls Within: Mental and Physical Geographies of Northern Ireland 34
Towards New Conceptual Corridors: Northern Ireland’s Liminal Space(s) 40
A Departure Point: The Good Friday Agreement in Perspective 50
A Discomforting Disjuncture: The Liminal Permanence of the Post-Agreement Period 55
Notes 61
Chapter 3: Retrospective (Re)Visions: Post-Agreement Fiction 73
A House of Fiction with a Million Windows: Tracing the ‘Cultural Corridor’ of Glenn Patterson’s Number 5 (2003) 76
A Papered Past: Tracing Signs of the Other 78
Chapterised Changes: Tracing Socio-Economic Transformations 84
A Hidden Truth: Tracing the Troubles 89
‘Conspiracies to Conspire’: Archiving Metafictional Fragments in Eoin McNamee’s The Ultras (2004) 94
‘Zonal Framework’: The Liminal Rites of Robert Nairac 96
‘X-Ray Eyes’: Looking Through Candid (Human) Cameras 101
‘A Blizzard of Paper’: Acts of Archiving Memory 106
Liquid Testimonies: The Substance of Truth in David Park’s The Truth Commissioner (2008) 113
Mirror Images: Reflections of Broken Selves 116
Present Absences, Absent Presences: Missing Child(ren) 122
Redemptive Reflections? ‘Elusive Truths’ and the Politics of Forgiveness 127
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Chapter 4: Between the Lines: Post-Agreement Poetry 150
Remembering the Recent Past: Childhood and the Conflict 153
Colette Bryce, “Line,” (2002) 153
Colette Bryce, “And They Call it Lovely Derry” (2005) 154
Sinéad Morrissey, “Thoughts in a Black Taxi” (1996) 156
Nick Laird, “Remaindermen” (2005) 157
Nick Laird, “The Signpost” (2005) 159
Deirdre Cartmill, “A Place of Perpetual Breakdown” (2004) 160
Traversing New Territories: Journeys ‘Home’ 164
Leontia Flynn, “Berlin” (2008) 164
Alan Gillis, “There” (2007) 165
Deirdre Cartmill, “Cross-Border Express” (2004) 167
Colette Bryce, “When I Land in Northern Ireland” (2008) 168
Leontia Flynn, “Airports” (2008) 169
Sinéad Morrissey, “Finding My Feet” (1996) 171
Leontia Flynn, “The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled” (2004) 172
Sinéad Morrissey, “Tourism” (2002) 174
Reading the City: ‘Progress’ and ‘Pretence’ in Post-­Agreement Belfast 176
Sinéad Morrissey, “In Belfast” (2002) 177
Leontia Flynn, “Belfast” (2008) 179
Alan Gillis, “To Belfast” (2004) 180
Alan Gillis, “Lagan Weir” (2007) 182
Colette Bryce, “Belfast Waking, 6 a.m.” (2008) 184
Miriam Gamble, “Spring in Belfast” (2010) 186
Alan Gillis, “Progress” (2004) 188
Notes 192
Chapter 5: Performing ‘Progress’: Post-Agreement Drama 199
Playing for Time: States of Perpetual Suspension in Tim Loane’s Political Comedies Caught Red Handed (2002) and To Be Sure (2007) 201
Interim Identities: Unionism and Its Manipulative Masquerades in Caught Red Handed 205
Snowball Effect: Republicanism and Its Religious Rhetoric in To Be Sure 208
Ideological Interchangeability: A Parallel Reading 213
Making a Mark: The Forgotten Other in Abbie Spallen’s Pumpgirl (2006) 219
‘Stagnation of Souls’: Trapped in (Textual) Borderlands 221
‘Cocooned Environments’: Stranded in a Moving Space 225
On a Course for Collision: Final Rites/Rides 228
Hammy’s Rites/Rides of Passage 229
Pumpgirl’s and Sinead’s Final Rites/Rides 232
‘Building a Better Belfast’: Communicative Cul-de-­Sac(s) in Daragh Carville’s This Other City (2010) 235
‘This is All Just a Misunderstanding’: Verbal Veneers 237
‘Your Life is None of My Business’: Syntactic Silences 241
‘A Younger Demographic’: Towards Other Communicative Avenues 245
Notes 248
Chapter 6: Diagnosing the Post-Agreement Period: A Literary Detour 258
Notes 263
Bibliography 264
Index 279