The Poetics of Migration in Contemporary Irish Poetry

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxix

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2. American Highways

   • Ailbhe McDaid

   Pages 1-53

3. Alternative Cartographies

   • Ailbhe McDaid

   Pages 55-87

4. Memory Spaces

   • Ailbhe McDaid

   Pages 89-146

5. Wandering Songs

   • Ailbhe McDaid

   Pages 147-196

6. Technologies of Distance

   • Ailbhe McDaid

   Pages 197-235

7. Back Matter

   Pages 237-265

   PDF

This book offers fresh critical interpretation of two of the central tenets of Irish culture – migration and memory. From its starting point with the ‘New Irish’ generation of poets in the United States during the 1980s and concluding with the technological innovations of 21st-century poetry, this study spans continents, generations, genders and sexualities to reconsider the role of memory and of migration in the work of a range of contemporary Irish poets. Combining sensitive close readings and textual analysis with thorough theoretical application, it sets out the formal, thematic, socio-cultural and literary contexts of migration as an essential aspect of Irish literature. This book is essential reading for literary critics, academics, cultural commentators and students with an interest in contemporary poetry, Irish studies, diaspora studies and memory studies.

• Memory
• 'New Irish'
• Diaspora
• Celtic Tiger
• Critical theory
• British and Irish Literature

“McDaid … offers an excellent model both of how to read a poetic text, and how to apply said readings to a larger critical argument. … It is the genuine strength of McDaid’s migrant-based framework and her interrogation of the constituent elements of Irish poetry which prompts such curiosity regarding how other poetic works and considerations might fare within the terms of this criticism.” (Kenneth Keating, Irish Studies Review, Vol. 27 (1), 2019)

• The Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

  Ailbhe McDaid

Ailbhe McDaid is Busteed Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, UK. She has published widely on a variety of subjects, including digital literature, migration, popular culture, literature in the Irish language, and contemporary poetry.

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