Uneasy Subjects

Postcolonialism and Scottish Gaelic Poetry
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-420-3358-0
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 17, 380 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 758 g

Reihe: SCROLL: Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature

Scottish and “Celtic fringe” postcolonialism has caused much controversy and unease in literary studies. Can the non-English territories and peoples of the British Isles, faced with centuries of English hegemony, be meaningfully compared to former overseas colonies? This book is the first comprehensive study of this topic which offers an in-depth study of Gaelic literature. It investigates the complex interplay between Celticity, Gaeldom, Scottish and British national identity, and international colonial and postcolonial discourse. It situates post/colonial elements in Gaelic poetry within a wider context, showing how they intersect with socio-historical and political issues, anglophone literature and the media.
Highlighting the centrality of Celticity as an archetypal construct in colonial discourses ancient and modern, this volume traces post/colonial themes and strategies in Gaelic poetry from the Middle Ages to the present. Central themes include the uneasy position of Gaels as subjects of the Scottish or British state, and as both intra-British colonised and overseas colonisers. Aiming to promote interdisciplinary dialogue, it is of interest for scholars and students of Scottish Studies, Gaelic and English literature, and international Postcolonial Studies.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Postkoloniale Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Postkoloniale Literaturen in Englisch, Englische Literatur außerhalb Europas

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Colonial beginnings? Celticity, Gaeldom and Scotland until the end of the Middle Ages
The capitalist nation state and its “civilising missions”: Gaelic identities in flux
The emergence of an anticolonial voice?
Mission accomplished – perhaps too well? Romanticism and noble savagery
When the civilising mission fails: racism, resistance and revival
Discourses of decolonisation? Cultural cringes, discursive authority, rewriting history, and nationalist poetry
Language matters, indigenous cultural values, education, and direct postcolonial alignments
Against traditionalism and nativism? Pluralism, innovation, internationalism and hybridity as alternative decolonising strategies
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Silke Stroh studied English and Gaelic at the Universities of Aberdeen and Frankfurt; and is currently Assistant Professor of English, Postcolonial and Media Studies at the University of Münster (Germany). She has published on postcolonial theory; interdisciplinary and comparative postcolonial criticism; national identities in the British Isles; as well as anglophone Scottish, Asian British, African and Canadian literature. Other research interests include diaspora studies and colonial settler cultures.