A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ART AND IRISH NATIONAL IDENTITY

This essay suggests a general context within which psychology might contribute to understanding the relationship of art and Irish national identity. Beginning with a review of contemporary work on the ideas of 'a national identity' it then utilises an analogy between contemporary discursive psychological theories of self and sociological theories of national identity. It argues that the context for a contribution from psychology to the questions of art and Irish national identity is likely to be that of cultural nationalism. The processes of art-making and identity-making are both, it is maintained, processes of invention. Certain themes or cases are selected to illustrate the potential for an interpretive/discursive psychological contribution to the debate on these issues. The cases selected are censorship in the modern Irish state, the Irish woman poet as a case of positioning and power within discourse, and the role of sentimentality in virulent nationalism.