Louis MacNiece: anomalous displacement and post-colonial identity :: Essays Papers

Louis MacNiece anomalous displacement and post-colonial identityI was the rectors son, born to the anglican order,Banned forever from the candles of the Irish poor(Carrickfergus)Ireland inhabits a unique position within the current fashion model of post-colonial literature and theory. The taradiddle of Ireland and its relationship to England, from the twelfth century (when atomic number 1 II was decreed feudal lord of Ireland by the Pope) to the present day, is the history of a divided colonial nation synonymous with ideas of displacement, identity and culture.Indeed, Ireland whitethorn be understood as both colonial and post-colonial, sitting uncomfortably on the fence between labels of post-colonial discourse such(prenominal) as freshman and third world. Stephen Slemons evocative essay, Unsettling the Empire Resistance Theory for the twinkling World, suggests the notion of a gage world, or a semi-periphery in post-colonial theory, as a method of transcending myopic binarisms (104 - 110). Slemon argues that the critical and metaphysical space created by the alternative of a second world accommodates the troublesome examples of the post-colonial, white, settler cultures of Australia, New Zealand, southern Africa and Canada. Ireland, with regard to both the historical feel and to Irish cultural expression and production, is a further country which may be fruitfully situated in this space.The requirement of a second world in post-colonial theory becomes glaringly obvious in a consideration of Ireland. As Liam Kennedy concludes, in a comparative analysis of Ireland to Asiatic and African post-colonial nations on economic grounds, attempting to place Ireland in a three World perspective turned out to be a mostly empty enterprise (Modern Ireland 114). The attempt to propose Ireland as a troika World nation has been common amongst various scholars. For example, in a sector Day pamphlet, Frederic Jameson claims the Dublin of Joyces fiction to be an unde rdeveloped colonisation (Kennedy 107).Kennedys study clearly emphasises the fact that Ireland is economically a element of the First World, comparable to Western European countries as opposed to those of the ontogeny world. Irelands Gross Domestic Product per head of population in 1913 was valued at US$655 compared to the 1960 figures of US$198 for Ghana and US$74 for India (Kennedy 110). To take a more contemporary view, the World Banks World Development Report 1991 shows that in 1989 Ireland was not a process of the Third World. The report, drawing on accepted measurements of wealth and social conditions such as GNP, diet, infant mortality rate, life expectancy, reliance on tillage and illiteracy, demonstrates the incongruous nature of claiming a Third World status for Ireland.