MACMILLAN Irishness on the Margins: Minority and Dissident Identities (New Directions in Irish and Irish American Literature)

This collection examines the presence of minority communities and dissident voices in Ireland both historically and in a contemporary framework. Accordingly, the contributions explore different facets of what we term “Irish minority and dissident identities,” ranging from political agitators drowned out by mainstream narratives of nationhood, to identities differentiated from the majority in terms of ethnicity, religion, class and health; and sexual minorities that challenge heteronormative perspectives on marriage, contraception, abortion, and divorce. At a moment when transnational democracy and the rights of minorities seem to be at risk, a book of this nature seems more pressing than ever. In different ways, the essays gathered here remind us of the importance of ‘rethinking’ nationhood, by a process of denaturalisation of the supremacy of white heterosexual structures. Review “This probing and wide-ranging collection of essays questions Irish homogeneity and depicts numerous modes of cultural and political dissidence, past and present. It  makes a passionate case for inclusiveness and interculturalism by demonstrating the links between the battles for justice for former Magdalenes, campaigns for abortion rights and the recognition of gay and trans identities and the side-lining of Muslims and other migrants, and the occlusion of asylum seekers in direct provision centres.” (Anne Fogarty, Professor of James Joyce Studies, University College Dublin, UK) “The essays here collected suggest powerfully that there are now many Irelands-within-Ireland―the nation has discovered that the best way of intensifying its identity is to multiply it. There will always be hidden Irelands in need of rediscovery but quite a few that were long inaudible are clearly heard in this challenging book.” (Declan Kiberd, Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame, US) About the Author Pilar Villar-Argáiz is Senior Lecturer of British and Irish Literatures in the Department of English Philology at the University of Granada, Spain. She has published extensively on contemporary Irish poetry and fiction, in relation to questions of gender, race, migration and interculturality. Her edited collections include Literary Visions of Multicultural Ireland: The Immigrant in Contemporary Irish Literature (2014).