Frantz Fanon and Cultural Nationalism in Ireland :: Essays Papers

Frantz Fanon and Cultural Nationalism in IrelandOnly of late has Ireland been included in the extensive study of postcolonial societies. Our geographical closeness to Britain, the particular that we are racially identical, the fact that we speak the same oral communication and build the same value systems make our status as postcolonial problematic. Indeed, some would moot it is impossible to tell the difference between Irish and British. However, to mistake Irish for English to some is a grave insult. In this essay, I would want to look at Irelands emerging postcolonial status in sex act to Frantz Fanons The Wretched of the Earth. By examining Fanons theories on the chute of cultural nationalism in colonised societies, one can put one across that events taking place in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth nose candy bear all the hallmarks of a colonised peoples anti-colonial manage through the revival of a culture that attempts to assert difference to the coloniser a nd the insistence on self-government. The years 1870 to 1890 in Ireland saw the fervent fight of Charles Stewart Parnell and his Home Rule party for home rule in Ireland. This consisted of Ireland having its aver parliament to deal with internal affairs while still rest under the control of Westminster in international affairs. It was not the desire for a full separation from Britain that would come later. However, by 1890, problems in Parnells person-to-person life lead to a breakdown in communication with the crown Minister and to a split in the Home Rule party. agree to M E Collins, this left a void in Irish politics and life that was filled with a new cultural cognisance and a questioning of Irish identity the new movements were different. They stressed the richness of Irish identity, Irish race and Irish culture (170 M E Collins, Ireland 1868 - 1966). It is at this point that Fanons Wretched of the Earth becomes relevant to Irish history. In his chapter entitled On National Consciousness, Fanon stresses the colonised infixed fears of being assimilated totally into the culture of the coloniser, of being swamped (169 Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth). These were the exact concerns that set-aside(p) the minds of the Irish people after the failure of home rule. They began to be sickish about what Collins terms the distinguishing marks of Irishness a culture and language that was different to Britains.