Because We Are Poor: Irish Theatre in the 1990s

ISBN-13: 9781788748582 / Angielski / Miękka / 2019 / 268 str.

Merriman, Victor

Recenzje

«Victor Merriman re-reads Ireland's great traditions and its contemporary cultural practices with dazzling audacity and intellectual verve. His book offers stunning insights into transformative ideas about the nation, citizenship and cultural politics during Ireland's recent economic boom, broadening and deepening our knowledge of postcolonial Ireland. Its account of the critical discourses that framed divergent narratives of the nation is eerily prescient. It proposes a decolonizing framework for understanding the neocolonial prosperity that underlay the 'progress for all' mythology associated with the Celtic Tiger boom. In light of Ireland's current economic collapse, this brilliantly argued book shows the way for a proactive cultural politics. The contemporary resonance and timeless fluency of Merriman's arguments make this book a must read for those interested in Irish drama and theatre, and postcolonial theory.» (Awam Amkpa, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University)

«The Celtic Tiger may be now extinct, but those seeking an understanding of the cultural-political, rather than simply economic reasons for its demise need look no further than Merriman's forensic analysis. Written with passionate conviction, it examines Irish drama of 'the long 1990s' as the site which exposes the fault-lines in a society compromised by the willed failure of its own progressive promise. Drawing on canonical plays and productions, along with those from the social and cultural margins, this is a powerful testimony to criticism's commitment to social change.» (Shaun Richards, Staffordshire University)

«Victor Merriman's work on Irish theatre is in the vanguard of a whole new paradigm in Irish theatre scholarship, one that is not content to contemplate monuments of past or present achievement, but for which the theatre is a lens that makes visible the hidden malaises in Irish society. That he has been able to do so by focusing on a period when so much else in Irish culture conspired to hide those problems is only testimony to the considerable power of his critical scrutiny.» (Chris Morash, NUI Maynooth)

Spis treści

CONTENTS: Independent Ireland: A Successor State - Theatre, Subjectivity, and Change - Intranational Problematics: Staging the Anti-Colonial Moment - Hope Deferred: Neo-Colonial Relations on Ireland's Stages - Them And Us: Dramas of a Rising Tide - Countering Hegemonies: Wet Paint Arts and Calypso Productions - Contested Spaces, Competing Voices: Irish Theatre 1990- 1998 - Conclusion. Re-Presenting the Nation: Theatre, Utopia and Decolonization.