230564 The Making and Remaking of Ireland (S) (SoSe 2008)

Specialists in Irish Studies argue that there are not only two Irelands in a geographical and political sense, the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, but also several Irelands which succeeded each other in history. There was Ireland, the first British colony, exploited and oppressed by England/Britain. There was postcolonial Ireland, still relying on the UK economically and to a certain extent politically, and all the more eager to prove its difference in terms of identity, culture, and religion. Finally, a new Ireland came into being, suddenly rich, increasingly secular, and considered to be one of the "most globalized" countries in the world. In this course, we will discuss how these transformations came about, how much of the older Irelands can still be found in the newer ones, and how people tried to organise, and make sense of, their lives during these different stages of modern and contemporary Irish history.

A reader with key texts will be provided in the first session.