Teacs agus Comhtheacs: Gneithe de Chritic na Gaeilge edited by Maire Ni Annrachan and Briona Nic Dhiarmada Cork 224pp, £15.95
Literature in Irish has for long struggled to find its own discourse. There was, of course, no problem until the unravelling of literary normality in the late 18th century. Revival literature inventively borrowed from whatever lay to hand. But in recent years stagnation set in (with the single exception of Breandan O Doibhlin's Maynooth French initiative), until the begetting of a fresh approach by a number of younger academics inspired by the high tide of theory.
This book is one result of their deliberations. When Franco-Yankee theory first invaded Irish studies about a decade ago, it upset a lot of the more settled types. It was, undoubtedly, at its worst, arrogant, snotty and hegemonic. Outside of "theory" there was no salvation. At its best, it introduced new concepts and theories which challenged the smug and the orthodox. At its worst, it puffed itself up in Frenchified garb and strutted its unassimilable wares. At its best, it refashioned Irish literary criticism by an intelligent grafting of the finest of what we knew with the most penetrating of what was now being expressed. The essays in this book are an example of that best at its best.
All of these contributions are written in a clear and uncluttered style. This, in itself, is noteworthy in a discipline often choked with impenetrable thickets of gunge. One can only gawp at how Liam Mac Coil manages to explain and control the Freudian splurge in a cool sixteen and a half pages, and does so while gutsily defending the master while acknowledging his critics.
Micheal O Croinin encapsulates the ramifications of translation theory while introducing for debate the post-colonialists' neglect of the "submerged" cultures of Europe. Not the least virtue of all of these essays is the way in which they take or use salient examples from contemporary or modern Irish literature to make their point, giving the lie to the idea that theory was a discipline in itself, a kind of lazy derivative light metaphysics, far removed from any dirty involvement with the stuff of literature.
The introduction clearly flags the notion that this book was written to stimulate debate. It deserves it, not least because many of the ideas put forward are just plain wrong. This is clear from the fact that they contradict one another, a truth acknowledged. If the author is irrelevant (as one essay proclaims) then feminist readings (championed by another) are redundant. As against that, if the reader invents the text (a patent absurdity), then there is no such thing as a misreading, and law, science, logic become a morass of irreconcilable contests, decided only by the fittest and fascist.
These essays are at their most challenging and illuminating when they engage with art, which we still have to presume that the business of criticism is about. Maire Ni Annrachin, editor and contributor to this volume, has been to the forefront of this new debate, prodding and challenging and sharpening the focus of discussion.
Her own essay is a model of close analysis allied to speculative ideation. I have no idea whether her argument, that metonymy is a more natural field of investigation than figurative language in the study of Irish literature, is correct or not, but it sure is fruitful and is certainly original.
Gearoid O Crualaoich successfully performs the imaginative task of marrying an apparently traditional discipline like folklore with the most post-modern of theories. Louis de Paor's readings of stories are illuminating and sensitive, but whether the theoretical preamble was helpful or not remains an open question. Mairin Nic Eoin gives an excellent survey of critical practices in our times, and presents a cogent explanation for the dominance of romanticism in 20th-century Irish criticism. Like Liam Mac Coil in his succinctness, Briona Nic Dhiarmada reduces the sprawling mass of feminist criticism to personable proportions and succeeds in telling one of the big stories of our time.
There are, of course, many, nay, hundreds of quibbles. Every essay invites robust rebuttal. The omission of post-colonialism and Marxism, both particularly relevant to the Irish situation, is admitted and regretted. This is a beginning and beyond, as well as a plangent statement of where we are at. Critics please contradict.
Alan Titley is a scholar, a novelist and Head of the Irish Department at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra