Scott Brewster

Fiona Becket

David Alderson

Virginia Crossman

Ireland in Proximity surveys and develops the expanding field of Irish Studies, reviewing existing debates within the discipline and providing new avenues for exploration. Drawing on a variety of disciplinary and theoretical approaches, this impressive collection of essays makes an innovative contribution to three areas of current, and often contentious, debate within Irish Studies. This accessible volume illustrates the diversity of thinking on Irish history, culture and identity. By invoking theoretical perspectives including psychoanalysis, cultural theories of space, postcoloniality and theories of gender and sexual difference, the collection offers fresh perspectives on established subjects and brings new and under-represented areas of critical concern to the fore. Chapter subjects include: * sexuality and gender identities * the historiographical issues surrounding the Famine * the Irish diaspora * theories of space in relation to Ulster and beyond. Contributors inlcude: David Alderson, Aidan Arrowsmith, Caitriona Beaumont, Fiona Becket, Scott Brewster, Dan Baron Cohen, Mary Corcoran, Virginia Crossman, Richard Kirkland, David Lloyd, Patrick McNally, Elisabeth Mahoney, Willy Maley, Shaun Richards, Éibhear Walshe.

History, Gender and Space

Ireland in Proximity

Robert Spencer

Today, anti-humanism is a dominant, even definitive, feature of contemporary theory. Setting out to challenge this tendency, editors David Alderson and Kevin Anderson argue that the political moment demands a reappraisal of the humanist tradition.Humanism, in all its diversity and complexity, may facilitate the renewal of progressive theory through the championing of human subjectivity, agency and freedom. Across four extended essays, David Alderson, Kevin Anderson, Barbara Epstein and Robert Spencer engage critically with the Marxist tradition, recent developments in poststructuralism, postcolonialism and queer theory.Incorporating an overview of the historical context that resulted in socialist humanism's eclipse in the 1950s and '60s, and a strident critique of anti-humanism, For Humanism offers a coherent and compelling argument for the rehabilitation of a much maligned tradition.

Explorations in Theory and Politics

For Humanism

Terry Eagleton is the foremost Marxist cultural theorist of our time. In the first book-length study of this highly influential figure, David Alderson provides detailed discussions of Eagleton's Marxism and his engagements with postmodernism, as well as an evaluation of his interventions in Irish Studies. Each of the chapters in this important intervention in current theoretical debates offers accessible contextualization of the key issues and provides detailed analyses of Eagleton's literary criticism. Alderson shows that the complex relations between nature, culture and ideology, body, subjectivity and authority are at the heart of Eagleton's ethical and political concerns. He goes on to demonstrate that these relations inform the theorist's critical examinations of such literary works as Wuthering Heights and The Merchant of Venice, and his treatment of W. B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde.

Terry Eagleton

Linda R. Anderson

This book engages with, and develops, current debates about desire and sexual identification by focusing on a wide selection of contemporary literature, film, and theory. These texts range from the novels of Alan Hollinghurst and Paul Magrs to the work of Pedro Almodovar, RuPaul, Derek Jarman, and Camille Paglia, as well as TV programs like "Ellen" and "Shinjuku Boys, " and individual films such as Collard's "Savage Nights."

David Alderson

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