The End of History in Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane (2011)?
This paper examines the issue of time and history in Kevin Barry’s 2011 novel City of Bohane, a mix of dystopia and satire in which post-Celtic Tiger, post-2008 “bust” Ireland is thinly disguised. That imaginary, dystopian world seems arrested in an eternal present, having reduced the historical pas...
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| Pubblicato in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| Natura: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lingua: | Anglais |
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Angles
2023
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| Accesso online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_6134 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_6134 https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.6134 urn:doi:10.4000/angles.6134 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/6134 2023-01-11T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/9n28 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The End of History in Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane (2011)? Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Mikowski, Sylvie dystopia satire Barry Kevin City of Bohane contemporary Irish fiction post-celtic Tiger Ireland Hillen Seán Irelantis dystopie parodie satire Barry Kevin City of Bohane roman irlandais contemporain crise de 2008 post-Tigre celtique Hillen Seán Irelantis This paper examines the issue of time and history in Kevin Barry’s 2011 novel City of Bohane, a mix of dystopia and satire in which post-Celtic Tiger, post-2008 “bust” Ireland is thinly disguised. That imaginary, dystopian world seems arrested in an eternal present, having reduced the historical past to the status of mere traces, the origin of which has been lost, while the future is jeopardized by entropy. However, the novel is not a critical dystopia in that the inhabitants of Bohane do not show any sign of protest or rebellion, numbed as they are by the pleasures of consumption of drugs or other material goods. The second part of the chapter analyses the different elements of the parody of contemporary Ireland and of the way neoliberalism has reduced the sacred cows of history—republicanism, nationalism, Catholicism—to devaluated signifiers. City of Bohane is comparable to visual artist Seán Hillen’s series of photomontage Irelantis, in which the incongruous, preposterous superimposition of a mythologized past with an equally artificial, implausible future is meant to set the onlooker aback, in the image of the sudden and unforeseeable transformation of an archaic, conservative, backward society into a globalized, multicultural vanguard of Western neo-liberalism. Cet article analyse le traitement du temps et de l’histoire dans le roman de Kevin Barry City of Bohane paru en 2011, mélange de dystopie et de satire dans laquelle l’Irlande d’après la crise de 2008 est à peine déguisée. Dans cet univers dystopique, le temps semble s’être figé dans un présent éternel, le passé historique ayant été réduit à l’état de traces dont le sens originel a été oublié, tandis que l’avenir est menacé par l’entropie qui caractérise ce monde imaginaire. Le roman n’est cependant pas une dystopie critique, car les habitants de Bohane, anesthésiés par la consommation de drogues ou de biens matériels, ne montrent aucun signe de rébellion. La deuxième partie de l’article décompose les différents éléments reconnaissables sous la parodie de l’Irlande contemporaine et du néolibéralisme, et de la manière dont il a réduit les figures emblématiques de l’histoire irlandaise – républicanisme, nationalisme, catholicisme – au niveau de signifiants dévalués. City of Bohane peut être comparé aux photomontages de l’artiste Seán Hillen, réunis sous le titre Irelantis, qui superpose de façon incongrue des visions traditionnelles et hypermodernes de l’Irlande, qui surprennent et interrogent le spectateur, de même que peut paraître surprenant et incongru le passage brutal de l’Irlande d’une société traditionnelle et conservatrice à un avant-poste du libéralisme globalisé et multiculturel. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
dystopia satire Barry Kevin City of Bohane contemporary Irish fiction post-celtic Tiger Ireland Hillen Seán Irelantis dystopie parodie satire Barry Kevin City of Bohane roman irlandais contemporain crise de 2008 post-Tigre celtique Hillen Seán Irelantis |
| spellingShingle |
dystopia satire Barry Kevin City of Bohane contemporary Irish fiction post-celtic Tiger Ireland Hillen Seán Irelantis dystopie parodie satire Barry Kevin City of Bohane roman irlandais contemporain crise de 2008 post-Tigre celtique Hillen Seán Irelantis Mikowski, Sylvie The End of History in Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane (2011)? |
| description |
This paper examines the issue of time and history in Kevin Barry’s 2011 novel City of Bohane, a mix of dystopia and satire in which post-Celtic Tiger, post-2008 “bust” Ireland is thinly disguised. That imaginary, dystopian world seems arrested in an eternal present, having reduced the historical past to the status of mere traces, the origin of which has been lost, while the future is jeopardized by entropy. However, the novel is not a critical dystopia in that the inhabitants of Bohane do not show any sign of protest or rebellion, numbed as they are by the pleasures of consumption of drugs or other material goods. The second part of the chapter analyses the different elements of the parody of contemporary Ireland and of the way neoliberalism has reduced the sacred cows of history—republicanism, nationalism, Catholicism—to devaluated signifiers. City of Bohane is comparable to visual artist Seán Hillen’s series of photomontage Irelantis, in which the incongruous, preposterous superimposition of a mythologized past with an equally artificial, implausible future is meant to set the onlooker aback, in the image of the sudden and unforeseeable transformation of an archaic, conservative, backward society into a globalized, multicultural vanguard of Western neo-liberalism. |
| author |
Mikowski, Sylvie |
| author_facet |
Mikowski, Sylvie |
| author_sort |
Mikowski, Sylvie |
| title |
The End of History in Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane (2011)? |
| title_short |
The End of History in Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane (2011)? |
| title_full |
The End of History in Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane (2011)? |
| title_fullStr |
The End of History in Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane (2011)? |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The End of History in Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane (2011)? |
| title_sort |
end of history in kevin barry’s city of bohane (2011)? |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2023 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.6134 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/6134 |
| _version_ |
1877292929523908608 |