Call for Contributions (collection 31/05/07; 15/12/07)
Redefinitions of Irish Identity in the Twenty-First Century: A
Postnationalist Approach.
DUCIS (Dalarna University Centre for Irish Studies), Sweden.

Voices from various fields of study have recently focused their analysis
on the numerous changes experienced in Ireland in the last fifteen years.
In Northern Ireland the most outstanding of these changes has been the
peace process, whereas in the Republic of Ireland the Celtic Tiger
phenomenon is connected with numerous changes within social and economic
spheres. In the last few years Ireland has registered a surge in the
number of immigrants, asylum-seekers and refugees, with over 167 different
languages currently spoken by around 160 nationalities, the appearance of
a new underclass in the newly knowledge-based economy, and an increase in
mental illnesses and suicide rate. These developments have all been
accompanied by the most recent fears that the Celtic Tiger may be losing
its bravado, as suggested by the recent announcements by a number of
global companies to relocate to most cost-effective destinations. All
these phenomena are often interpreted as the consequences of a rapid
process of transformation in Ireland under the influence of globalisation,
which has raised questions regarding the role of the nation-state and the
validity of traditional definitions of Irish national identity. In the
European context, Gerard Delanty has analysed how globalisation has caused
not only the emergence of a new type of nationalism which differs from
nineteenth-century nationalisms (1996), but it has also opened up "a space
for reflection . . . in which to search for new collective identities"
(O'Mahony and Delanty 2001: vii), with a European postnational identity as
one of the options, inspired by Habermas's analysis of citizenship and
national identity in contemporary Europe. According to O'Mahony and
Delanty, Ireland, in line with European modernity, is in "an overt phase
of crisis and contradiction" (2001: vii) in which inherited constructs of
nationalism and national identity are questioned, a process also analysed
by Richard Kearney in _Postnationalist Ireland_ (1997).

The concepts of the postnational and the postnationalist – the latter, in
the case of Ireland, emphasising current changes in analyses of
nationalisms – have caused an intense debate in various fields of
knowledge, often from opposed stances. Postnationalism has been
interpreted as an inevitable reality in the current global circumstances,
but also as an attack on the democratic basis of current states, or on the
basis of national communities and their identities. In the Irish context,
where the construction of an Irish national identity is inextricably
interrelated to cultural nationalism and the Irish Literary Revival,
current interrogations of traditional definitions of Irishness also raise
interest in contemporary literary responses to the problematisation of
Irish national identity.

The aim of this book is to collect a number of articles from a
multiplicity of fields, predominantly literature, but also including
sociology, anthropology, economics, politics, philosophy, and history, so
as to present a multifaceted view of contemporary redefinitions of Irish
identity in the current postnationalist context. Articles with an
interdisciplinary approach will be favoured.

Submissions for proposals of articles (between 6,000 and 8,000 words)
should not exceed 500 words in length and should be accompanied by a short
biographical note of the author(s). Please send proposals to Irene
Gilsenan-Nordin at ign_at_du.se AND Carmen Zamorano Llena at cza_at_du.se.
Deadline for submissions of proposals is 31 May 2007 and full articles
should be completed by 15 December 2007.

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Received on Mon Mar 05 2007 - 16:00:45 EST