TY - JOUR

T1 - Dangerous memories and entangled temporalities

T2 - Irish republicanism and the postcolonial politics of time

AU - Farrell, Liam

AU - Hussey, Gary

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2024/10/18

Y1 - 2024/10/18

N2 - In this article we develop a ‘hauntological’ reading of republicanism in postcolonial Ireland. This reading takes as its object the ways in which the politics of remembering–and remembering republican politics in particular–is equally a politics of time. Exploring the politics of republicanism through the lens of entangled temporalities, we develop an understanding of a particular mode of political desire. This republican political desire holds open the demand for a radical interrogation of the (post)colonial given. As such, it takes the form of a ‘dangerous memory’. Through the concept of a ‘dangerous memory’, we excavate a certain republican politics of refusal, that haunts the legitimacy and automatic reproduction of the postcolonial settlement and the attendant proprietary relations of inequality that it formalizes–culturally, politically, economically and legally. This theoretical interpretation of Irish republican hauntology is empirically explored through three historical layers and entangled temporalities that are organized around the ghosts of Roger Casement, a radical republican figure. The dangerous memories of Casement not only disrupt the canonical or official interpretation of Irish republicanism, but also open up the left-republican possibility to further interrogate the postcolonial present, both in Ireland and beyond.

AB - In this article we develop a ‘hauntological’ reading of republicanism in postcolonial Ireland. This reading takes as its object the ways in which the politics of remembering–and remembering republican politics in particular–is equally a politics of time. Exploring the politics of republicanism through the lens of entangled temporalities, we develop an understanding of a particular mode of political desire. This republican political desire holds open the demand for a radical interrogation of the (post)colonial given. As such, it takes the form of a ‘dangerous memory’. Through the concept of a ‘dangerous memory’, we excavate a certain republican politics of refusal, that haunts the legitimacy and automatic reproduction of the postcolonial settlement and the attendant proprietary relations of inequality that it formalizes–culturally, politically, economically and legally. This theoretical interpretation of Irish republican hauntology is empirically explored through three historical layers and entangled temporalities that are organized around the ghosts of Roger Casement, a radical republican figure. The dangerous memories of Casement not only disrupt the canonical or official interpretation of Irish republicanism, but also open up the left-republican possibility to further interrogate the postcolonial present, both in Ireland and beyond.

KW - critical theory

KW - dangerous memory

KW - Irish republicanism

KW - political desire

KW - postcolonial Ireland

KW - temporality

KW - Cultural studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85206937171&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/09502386.2024.2414054

DO - 10.1080/09502386.2024.2414054

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85206937171

JO - Cultural Studies

JF - Cultural Studies

SN - 0950-2386

ER -