EBOOK Poor Bugger's Tool:Irish Modernism, Queer Labor, and Postcolonial History

With the weakening moral authority of the Catholic Church, the boom ushered in by        the Celtic Tiger, and the slow but steady diminishment of the Troubles in the North,        Ireland has finally stepped out from the shadows of colonial oppression onto the        world stage as a major cosmopolitan country. Taking its title from a veiled        reference to Roger Casement-the humanitarian and Irish patriot hanged for treason-in        James Joyce's Ulysses, The Poor Bugger's Tool demonstrates how the affective labor        of Irish queer culture might contribute to a progressive new national image for the        Republic and Northern Ireland.Looking back to the first wave of Irish modernism in        the works of Wilde, Synge, Casement, and Joyce, Patrick Mullen reveals how these        authors deployed queer aesthetics to shape inclusive forms of national affiliation        as well as to sharpen anti-imperialist critiques. In its second half, the monograph        turns its attention to Ireland's postmodernist boom in the works of Patrick McCabe,        Neil Jordan, and Jamie O'Neill. With readings of The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on        Pluto, and At Swim Two Boys, Mullen shows that queer sensibilities and style remain        key cultural resources for negotiating the political and economic realities of        globalization at the turn of the twenty-first century.Buttressed by writings of        theorists like Marx, Foucault, and Antonio Negri, The Poor Bugger's Tool brings        Irish literature into a fruitful dialog with queer theory, postcolonial studies, the        history of sexuality, and modernist aesthetics.