How oppression has obstructed and fractured the nature of Irish national discourse

The Rising of the Moon puts the radical changes in current political dialogue in Ireland into the context of the whole of the 20th century. Exploring the dynamics of power and language, Ella O'Dwyer compares the literature of Beckett, Conrad and Chinua Achebe, amongst others, to accounts of real events in Ireland's political history. She also examines accounts of particular events in Irish history that include Rex Taylor's biography of Michael Collins, Gerry Adams's biography and even messages from hunger-striker Bobby Sands that were smuggled out of prison.

In a country where people have been subjected to incarceration and victimisation, and where the political discourse is characterised by slogans, repetition, agreement and treaty, the implications for the national language and identity are immense. Ella O'Dwyer shows how oppression has obstructed and fractured the nature of Irish national discourse, and that this fragmented voice is a feature of all postcolonial narrative.

1. Introduction: Reading Institutions, Power, Control and Identity
Obstructing Discourse
Releasing Response
Can we go on?
2. Who Fears to Speak: Silence and Anonymity in the National Discourse
Past and Present
Empire Speak
Immediate and Terrible War
Cognitive Control
A Culture of Silence
Stepping Stones
Revolution and Reaction
Culture and Colonisation
Calling the Tune
3. When Slavery’s Night is Ore: The Minefield of Meaning
Stalking Knowledge
The Booby Trap
The Big Idea
Partitionist Thought
Trojan Forces
Cogni-phobia
4. The Inquisition: A View of The Present State of Ireland
Seclusion
Virus in the System
Driven to Death
Power and the Absentee
5. The Split: Doing the Joined Up Writing
Acute Amnesia
Unholy Alliance
The State of the Nation
The Political Unconscious
6. The Threshold: Standing on the Threshold of Another Trembling World
Arrested Discourse
Stammered Delivery
Border and Last Frontier
Spell binding language
7. The Rising of the Moon
References
Index