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1 (1.6 Mb)This page last revised 21 January 1999
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This page is the product of a conversation held in Dublin on 7 May, 1998. The interview was conducted by Andrew Morrison and Aidan Fadden -- two postgraduate students at the Queen’s University of Belfast. The impetus for the meeting was that we were following a course of study in post-colonial literatures and theories, similar to a course taught by Declan Kiberd at University College, Dublin. Kiberd holds the chair of Anglo-Irish Literature at UCD. He is the author of a number of literary and cultural studies including the hotly debated Inventing Ireland. Published in 1996, Inventing Ireland incorporates a number of ideas proposed by post-colonial theories, in an attempt to place modern Irish literature (late 18th century to late 20th century) within a socio-political and historical textual analysis. "Because we were the first English speaking people to decolonise this century", explains Kiberd, "it seemed wise to draw on postcolonial theories which are genuinely illuminating".
In an article in the Irish Times you wrote: "It often struck me that many of our great writers had a social vision that was richer than that of any political theorist or practical leader in the same period." How far would you argue that the literature and culture of Ireland can be read meaningfully and productively as postcolonial, and to what extent do you think a postcolonial reading can have a social function?
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1 (1.6 Mb)Colin Graham, in a review of Inventing Ireland in the Irish Review, described your book as "a text written with the consciousness of an audience beyond the academic." Is that something that has been important to you?
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2 (673 Kb)Thinking about the post-Agreement Ireland and the fact that suddenly it seems as if the politicians have finally discovered the idea of compromise and hybridity, do you feel that the situation in the Republic has been addressed by Irish writers? Are they addressing the future, not only in a postcolonial context, but also in a context of economic forces and a rising prosperity which may not last?
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3 (1.9 Mb)Joyce, then, really was writing in a postcolonial context in the sense that there is a resistance in his writing. Is there a risk that increased materialism may create conditions so unlike those conditions which will inhibit artistic production?
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4 (1.25 Mb)In a sense, that may be the new colonial sting which has produced something, which has been something to react against?
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5 (412 Kb)Speaking of new Irish writers, do you differentiate between writers from the North and the South? Do you think that is a useful idea? There are some Northern critics who see poetry from the North as being "where it's at" or where it was -- at least for a good while. Do you think this is a valid distinction?
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6 (1.2 Mb)Maybe the East-West thing is the issue upon which England concentrates?
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7 (1.2 Mb)Do you think Ireland needs to update its censorship laws?
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8 (1.5 Mb)You say in your introduction to Inventing Ireland that in The Empire Writes Back the authors pass swiftly over the Irish case. You argue that "this is perhaps because the authors find these white Europeans -- the Irish -- too strange an instance to justify their sustained attentions." We too have noticed in our own reading that there is a lack of postcolonial attention to Ireland; Edward Said does make an attempt in "Yeats and Decolonisation", but the essay seems rather clumsy.
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9 (2.1 Mb)Can you say something about how the subject of Ireland and post-colonialism is viewed in the American academy?
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10 (680 Kb)What about Ireland and post-colonialism from the Australian point of view?
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11 (520 Kb)Could you say a bit more about Thomas Keneally and republicanism?
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12 (930 Kb)This project was completed under the direction of Dr. Leon Litvack as a requirement for the MA degree in Modern Literary Studies in the School of English at the Queen's University of Belfast. The site is evolving and will include contributions from future generations of MA students on other writers and themes.
This interview was conducted by Aidan Fadden and Andy Morrison.
E-mail Aidan
or
E-mail Andy
with
your suggestions.
The Imperial Archive Project is
supervised by Leon Litvack. E-mail
me with
your suggestions.
