Identity Parades Northern Irish Culture and Dissident Subjects

Identity Paradesinvestigates of the role and importance of identity politics in modern Northern Irish society. Through a discussion of the kinds of texts that are often overlooked in analyses of culture in the North such as film, biography, popular fiction and travel writing the book charts the rise of identity as an increasingly popular way of defining individual and communal affiliation and considers its importance within Northern Irish political discourse as a whole. In this,Identity Paradesidentifies not only the possibilities but also the limits of "identitarian" thinking and describes the ways in which identity positions in the North can become troubled, fossilized and self-parodic.

Richard Kirkland is Lecturer in English and Irish Studies at the University of Manchester.