The three essays constituting this volume were originally published as individual pamphlets by the Field Day Theatre Company, in Derry, Northern Ireland. Each deals with the question of nationalism and the role of cultural production as a force in understanding and analyzing the aftermath of colonization. The authors’ diverse perspectives are demonstrated by the essays’ respective titles: Eagleton, Nationalism: Irony and Commitment; Jameson, Modernism and Imperialism; and Said, Yeats and Decolonization. The essays have implication beyond their immediate topics, bearing upon questions of feminism, decolonization, and modernism to illuminate problems that belong to other groups and regions.

Terry Eagleton is a fellow of Linacre College, Oxford, and lecturer in critical theory at the University of Oxford. Fredric Jameson is professor in the Graduate Program in Literature at Duke University. Edward W. Said is Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Seamus Deane is professor of modern English and American literature at University College, Dublin.