Seamus Deane, one of Ireland"s most important critics, assesses here the place of literature in "a colonial or neo-colonial culture like ours, where the naming of the territory has always been ... a politically charged act." The force of Deane"s A Short History of Irish Literature derives precisely from his naming of the territory. With insight, erudition, and a razor-keen style, he locates Irish writers within the island"s traumatic history. His aim is to show how literature has been inescapably allied with historical interpretation and with political allegiance.