During the Northern Irish Troubles of the past 30 years, a war of words has accompanied the actual conduct of violence in complex ways. This book explores the way literature of the period participates in this war of words. It draws on a range of contemporary authors and on a variety of printed sources, including journalists' reports, political speeches, interviews, memoirs, pamphlets, and autobiography. The book places the Northern Ireland conflict within a broad European debate about the legitimate use of force, and provides an original analysis of the inter-relationship between language,...

This book discusses relationships among religion, literature and ethnicity in Northern Ireland since 1967. The introduction provides a theoretical account of how literature engages sectarian prejudices, allowing these to be played out in ways that can help to dissolve or mitigate the alienating effects of traditional enmities. Subsequent chapters deal with identity, endogamy, education, gender, and imprisonment. Each chapter combines an analysis of specific cultural issues with a critical assessment of relevant works by key authors. A conclusion offers an assessment of relationships between...

This book deals with interrelationships between literature and religion to examine the idea of the person in relation to the politics of culture. Throughout, Patrick Grant maintains that ideology separates value from fact, spirit from matter, and this separation depersonalises. In a series of chapters dealing with body, city, others, freedom, and transgression, and through a selection of texts from the New Testament to the Northern Irish poets, he shows how literature, spirituality, and postmodern culture might jointly liberate persons in a society committed to democratic process and...