BOOK REVIEW: DECLAN KIBERD, “AFTER IRELAND: WRITING THE NATION FROM BECKETT TO PRESENT”, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2018, 540 P.

Abstract

Since the publication of Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation in 1995, Declan Kiberd’s distinction as a critic and scholar in the field of (Anglo-)Irish Studies has grown substantially, not in the least because of the prestigious literary awards bestowed upon his work. In fact, following the publication of the sequel Irish Classics in 2000, Kiberd’s relevance to the field of Irish studies, as well as cultural studies as a whole, stems from his straightforward engagement with the archetype of the Irish “national project.” Indeed, the kernel contention of After Ireland is that the “birth of the new state signalled the slow end of the national project,” an enfeeblement which became, in his own words, “conclusive in the years following the economic crash of 2008” (ix). The distinctiveness and allure of Kiberd’s perspective is precisely its compatibility with other national blueprints, or the idea of nationhood itself. His research propositions aim to identify the way in which “the state proved unable to contain or embody (…) the ambitions of the nation” (ix), while also recounting the spirit of emergency that seemed to define the condition of postcolonialism.