Mere Irish and Fior Ghael

Since its publication in 1986, Mere Irish and Fior-Ghael has acquired cult status as one of the most extensive and incisive studies on the growth of an Irish national identity. Spanning five centuries, the sources dealt with are drawn from three linguistic traditions, Irish-Gaelic, Latin, and English, and chart the slow and painful process of cultural confrontation, antagonism, and interaction. Leerssen takes for his central theme the formulation of an ideal or stereotype of "Irishness" -- Mere Irish in English discourse, Fior-Ghael from the native point of view. The author traces the development of this ethnic image in discursive traditions and genres as diverse as Gaelic poetry, English drama, controversial religious writings, political commentary, and historiography, from the Middle Ages until the Act of Union. This is both a prehistory of Irish nationalism and a compendium of Irish cultural history; it addresses not only the interaction between political and literary developments, but also between Ireland's cultural traditions.

ISBN 0268014272   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780268014278 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 785 Publisher University of Notre Dame Press   Published in Notre Dame IN Imprint University of Notre Dame Press   Series ISSN 0003 Format Paperback   Series title Critical Conditions: Field Day Essays and Monographs Publication date 01 May 1997   Height (mm) 234 Library of Congress 96042498   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 941.5   Spine width (mm) 29 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level General Pages 432

		Acknowledgements
		Abbreviations
		Spelling, Typography, Nomenclature, Translations
		Preface to the Second Edition		1
		Introduction: Aims and Methods		6
		The Idea of Nationality: Terminology and Historical Background		15
		Ireland in English Representations		32
		The Fictional Irishman in English Literature		77
		Gaelic Poetry and the Idea of Irish Nationality		151
		The Vindication of Irish Civility in the Seventeenth Century		254
		The Development of an Irish National Self-Image in the Eighteenth Century		294
		Conclusion		377
		Notes		384
		Bibliography		415
		Index		439

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