A contribution to irish studies

Abstract

The imediate occassion for the present paper was the publication in 1991 of The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing under the general editorship of Seamus Deane. The author peruses the anthologized texts focusing his attention on those pieces or passages which make references to the spatial presence of Ireland or to the conceptual-emotional constructions of this geographical entity. His findings are elaborated through the twelve modes in which Ireland or its constructions are represented, ad which he lists as follows: the beginnings, images, religious divisions, dispossession, the dispossessed, the land, naming, the awakening, countermeasures, the state, emigration, the city. In conclusion, the author observes Lliat acquaintance with Irish matter ought to have, at least, two important implications. On the pedagogical level, it enforces the necessity of reexamining the habitual ways of conducting English studies and, secondly, on a more everyday practical level, this reading into Irish studies should, by analogy, help one understand the behaviour of a number of political agents who have been chosen to arbitrate the drama raging through the Balkan region.