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‘What was it all for?’1 John McGahern’s critique of Irish republican nationalism: an ethical reading
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John McGahern’s work reflects profound scepticism concerning 1916 and the legacy of the Irish War of Independence, as well as a subversive attitude towards the original spirit of revolution. The early novels – The Barracks, and Amongst Women, with their post-revolutionary figures represented by characters like Reegan and Moran, might be said to be still in the throes of the founding revolutionary event, while in That They May Face the Rising Sun, McGahern’s last novel, the critique of republicanism focuses on the ‘new’ modern day republican activist, depicted by the character of Jimmy Joe McKiernan. Using Levinas, who defines ethics as critique, the primacy of ethics being the experience of the encounter with the Other, this chapter examines the tensions surrounding McKiernan’s place in the local community where political violence is seen to be both tolerated and condemned.
Title: ‘What was it all for?’1 John McGahern’s critique of Irish republican nationalism: an ethical reading
Description:
John McGahern’s work reflects profound scepticism concerning 1916 and the legacy of the Irish War of Independence, as well as a subversive attitude towards the original spirit of revolution.
The early novels – The Barracks, and Amongst Women, with their post-revolutionary figures represented by characters like Reegan and Moran, might be said to be still in the throes of the founding revolutionary event, while in That They May Face the Rising Sun, McGahern’s last novel, the critique of republicanism focuses on the ‘new’ modern day republican activist, depicted by the character of Jimmy Joe McKiernan.
Using Levinas, who defines ethics as critique, the primacy of ethics being the experience of the encounter with the Other, this chapter examines the tensions surrounding McKiernan’s place in the local community where political violence is seen to be both tolerated and condemned.
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