The Present Body? Evolving Tradition

Abstract

As I illustrated in Chapter 1, the body is staged within a certain set of cultural conditions. Representing the self raises issues of authenticity and tradition as part of an exercise in nationalism. Phenomenology and readings of materiality, when linked with the problematic issue of Irish authenticity, help to frame considerations of the body that must interrogate the postcolonial status of the body, the gender-specificity of the body in practice and also in process. Representations of the male and female body are undertaken in a context where previous cultural representations resonate and continue to inform current projects.

— goodbye to the literary discursive as a satisfying mode. But what to replace it with?

(Mac Intyre in Taplin Guardian 24 November 1986)