Kiberd describes the difficulties for Ireland to deanglicize even within their literature as he captures “the dilemma of whether to write for the native audience–a risky, often thankless task–or to produce texts for consumption in Britain and North America” (Castle, 459). English had become the sophisticated language of Ireland during colonialism. This article brought to my mind two things: first, Spivak’s “The Burden of English” and second, “Why be a second-rate version of someone else when you could be a first-rate version of yourself?” I think the Irish, as is true with many colonialized cultures, went through the latter question while searching for their own authentic identity.
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