This book attempts to delve into the connection between imagination and politics, and examines the many expectations and fears engendered by the Irish home rule debate. More specifically, it assesses the ways politicians, artists and writers in Ireland, Britain and its empire imagined how self-government would work in Ireland after the restitution of an Irish parliament. What did home rulers want? What were British supporters of Irish self-government willing to offer? What did home rule mean not only to those who advocated it but also to those who opposed it?

Explores Irish home rule and Ireland's political future Analyses of a body of about 30 little known future fictions dealing with Irish home rule Provides a comparative study of the nationalist discourse and of the unionist discourse on Irish home rule

Autorentext
Pauline Collombier is Associate Professor at the University of Strasbourg, France.

Inhalt
Introduction.- 'Home Rule' Imagined by Its Champions.- The Future of Ireland in the Pro-home Rule Press.- Irish Self-Government Further Imagined: Pro-home Rule Fiction.- Home Rule as an Anti-utopia: Advanced Nationalism and the Future of Ireland.- Home Rule as Dystopia: What Unionists Feared Would Happen Under Irish Self-Rule.- Reaching Out to New Converts, Providing an Outlet for New Voices: The Use of Images and Fiction in the Debate on Ireland's Future.- British Positivists and the Prospect of Home Rule.- Michael Davitt, Utopianism and Home Rule.- William Morris and Irish Home Rule.- Epilogue.