Recharging the Canon: Towards a Literary Redefinition of Irishness

Abstract

By adding volumes four and five as a supplement to its anthology, Field Day was both acknowledging its own attenuation of a tradition, and at the same time, valuing at another dimension, the very plurality of traditions cited by Deane in his general introduction. Ironically, this supplement enhances the epistemological claims to inclusivity even as its causation was due to accusations to the contrary. It is this plurality of tradition and canonicity that I will explore in this essay, examining exemplary aspects of the work of Yeats, Joyce and Heaney in terms of how these writers valorise that very plurality.