Abstract
The extraordinary rise of Ireland’s economy during the Celtic Tiger years, and its no less spectacular crash in the autumn of 2008, is by now a familiar story. The last 20 years have resulted in a radical change in Ireland’s social and cultural fabric that is reflected in its writing, art and built environment. Its capital, Dublin, has been the site of particular shifts in fortune during these years, and its evolution, both as a built space and a literary inspiration, is the focus of this essay. Today’s city is judged against its past, and its poetic representation often dwells on its imperfect state, whether as medieval settlement or twenty-first-century consumer playground. Many poets have seen continuities of past and present as essential to an understanding of the contemporary city, and their work interprets the recessionary space as part of a continuum—an ebb and flow of singular and collective meanings.
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Collins, L. (2017). Changing Places: The Imperfect City in Contemporary Irish Poetry. In: González-Arias, L. (eds) National Identities and Imperfections in Contemporary Irish Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47630-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47630-2_11
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