‘We’re the Boys Built the Empire’: National Media and Postcolonial Encounters in Eoin McNamee’s Resurrection Man

This paper considers Eoin McNamee's Resurrection Man (1994) as a Troubles novel acutely interested in the ways violence is transcribed into text. It argues McNamee's depictions of the media satirise their attempt to contain historical explanations of the Troubles exclusively within the inherent sectarianism of the region. Instead, McNamee creates discursive encounters between Ulster and different trouble spots around the world, summoning the spectres of British imperialism. Through a discussion of decolonisation, memory and the legacies of Empire, the paper engages with the ways the local and the international intersect to interrogate nationalisms, borders, identities and historical representation.