A collection of essays by Scandinavian scholars, who discuss and demonstrate new--and at times controversial--approaches to exilic experiences, metaphors and perceptions in modern Irish culture and literature. Writers dealt with are, among others, Roddy Doyle, John Banville, Hubert Butler, Rosa Mulholland, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Anne Sadlier, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, and James Joyce.

War and conflicts have always played a significant role in defining national identities, often with reference to events that happened centuries ago. The role of passing on collective memories of these types of events has become even more complex in a globalising world, where new configurations of cosmopolitan memories challenge more locally and nationally based memories. The many aspects of societies remembering and forgetting call for interdisciplinary studies. This book reflects this effort. With reference to current theories of cultural memory, it explores how memories of war and conflict...

Economists used to claim that material self-interest and the rational choices of the individual were universal factors that transcended cultural values and differences. This position has been challenged by critics, who have pointed out the methodological and philosophical weaknesses of this approach. They dispute the idea that social order can be explained as the product of the choices of individual agents, and that social agents operate independently of their social and cultural values and norms. Today, there is virtual agreement, not only among students of culture, but also among social...