The Irish Modernist Literary Writing: A Dialogic Space.

The core argument of this article is that linguistic and narrative experimentation that dominates the modernist Irish literature is no longer just an attempt at linguistic subversion but an endeavour of national innovation. The dynamics of modernist literature allows Irish writers to transform colonial oppression into a positive literary tradition. The colonised status of modern Irish writers offered a form of voluntary exile that is apparent in the autonomy of art and the playful language and text that no longer signal a univocal signification but a meaningful play. This sense of detachment probably explains why so many Irish writers from Swift through Wilde to Beckett and O’Brien were so fond of word play and linguistic innovation. The playful language that re-arranges letters and words is a political act. Instead of supporting violence, Irish writers ridicule standard images they saw as limiting. Colloquy transforms the novel into a movement through its onomatopoeic narratives, voices and discourses. Kaleidoscopic narratives undermine conventional modes of discourse by concentrating on linguistic instability and in particular on the dialogic nature of language. It eschews meaning in favour of a dynamic form in which meanings are constructed. The effect of continual interplay is a dynamic and unbounded experience.