{"product_id":"fitness-for-freedom-marion-quirici-9780815611929","title":"Fitness for Freedom: Disability, Degeneration, and Modern Irish Writing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFitness for Freedom ex\u003c\/i\u003eplores the legacy of intersectional stereotypes of disability, race, gender, sexuality, class, and religion that justified imperial rule in Ireland and the forms of oppression that continued after independence. Marion Quirici identifies models of citizenship and creative autonomy in Irish modernist literature that valorize vulnerability over ability and interdependence over independence. She uncovers a history in which an entire nation, Ireland, was characterized as disabled and therefore \"not fit for freedom.\" Beyond symbolism, the Famine and decades of emigration led to a perception that Ireland's racial stocks were depleted, and that those who remained were feeble and few. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe fraught relationship between disability and Irishness provides context for Quirici's analysis of modernist Irish literature. Revivalists such as William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, P?draic Pearse, and the Gaelic Athletic Association created new mythologies of Irish ability to counter imperial stereotypes, tacitly reinforcing the idea of disability as a disqualification for sovereignty. Certain Irish modernists, however--James Joyce, Edna O'Brien, Samuel Beckett, Brian O'Nolan, and Christy Brown--called the \"fitness for freedom\" ideology into question. These authors allow us to disentangle disability from unfitness and scrutinize its relationship to liberation. In their work, disability becomes an avenue for exploring the human experience and discovering the inherent creativity and collaborative potential of an interdependent life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Marion Quirici\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0815611927\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780815611929\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Syracuse University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/01\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 308\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Marion Quirici","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46807232446719,"sku":"9780815611929","price":69.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_a3b7410c-3eb4-4163-aff0-79a08a9febaf.jpg?v=1745378894","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/fitness-for-freedom-marion-quirici-9780815611929","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}