Gendered Spaces in Contemporary Irish Poetry

conceptual value of the nation goes unrecognized.í Post-nationalism is
therefore an ëexample of how the concept of the nation continues to
circumscribe critical and theoretical discourses which appear to go
beyond it.í Graham identifies how, in Kearneyís analysis, nationalism
is being left behind with reluctance and nostalgia, and he notices how

for Kearney, the national is still the defining site of cultural indigenity and

authenticity: our writers and our singers (our culture will allow us to retain a

grasp on a real cultural base while addressing ourselves to the post-nationalist

European situation).^35

Graham worries that

[p]ost-colonialism, as a theory of culture, can initially seem to be liable to fall

into parallel forms of stasis. As a critique it can appear to be tied to a narrative

which celebrates the entity of the nation as the logical and correct outcome of

the process of anti-colonial struggle.^36

He makes a point that cannot be emphasized too often: ëin recent years
post-colonialism has been involved in building a critique of the
ideology and praxis of nationality in the post-colonial world.í Here,
Graham cites Ranajit Guha, who describes post-colonial India as ëan
historic failure of the nation to come into its owní. Graham concludes
that it is this ëcombination of an awareness of concepts of the nation
as both formative and restrictive in Irish culture that marks post-
colonialism as a radical way forward in Irish culture and theory.í^37
Awareness of the nation as both ëformativeí and ërestrictiveí in
Irish culture is central to readings of identity in contemporary Irish
poetry. In view of this, can the migrant mindsí of Berkeleyís nomadic
subjects get ëbeyond the tribeí, and how far does her poetry respond to
the concerns of Seamus Heaney?

35 Graham, ëPost-Nationalism/Post-Colonialism: Reading Irish Cultureí, p.37,
p.36.
36 Ibid., p.36.
37 Ibid., p.37.