Agora 3.2 Editorial  (Spring, 2005)

This issue of Agora draws together three articles concerned with the peculiarities of twentieth century materials, but in a way that demonstrates the range of notions that fall under the broad categories of Modernism and the Postmodern. Gerardo Rodríguez Sanchez focuses on Modernist conceptualizations of the self, the Lawrentian allotropic self in particular, in opposition to the more unstable selfhood he finds in Katherine Mansfield's work. Pieter Vermeulen, in turn, explores the deconstructive potential in Frank McGuinness' Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme. This article also reminds us of the transitional nature of our own twenty-first century, having altered its references to Jacques Derrida to the past tense during the revisions process. Even while debate still surrounds the transitions seen in Modernism, major figures and movements from our own time are in flux in a way that eludes clear demarcation. Lastly, Andrew Gibson works through the Liberalist political debates that surround late Modernism and our own shifting period, marking a point of potential dialogue between the other two pieces.

As a whole, these three works cohere in expressing concerns over the debates around the triad of selfhood, how such a self is constricted in comporting itself in a community, and the work of mourning that arises from the negotiation between the two.

This issue also sits between two special issues, proceeding from the issue on Lawrence Durrell, which takes up many of these same themes, and preceding the forthcoming issue on Humanities Computing, which further clouds these notions of identity and community.

James Gifford