ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to consider the juridical significance of the Irish hunger strike of 1981. It argues that the postmodern focus on texts and epistemology, while absolutely necessary, is insufficient, and therefore that it needs to be supplemented by an emphasis on politics and ethics. The chapter draws on some key motifs of both postmodernism and deconstruction: alterity, otherness, pluralism, simulation, difference, and incommensurability. Although postmodernism as political philosophy and deconstruction as critical method do not share an identity, there are certain elements of homology, continuity, and overlap that are of interpretive value. Postmodernism and deconstruction share some political motifs. The chapter also argues that the hunger strike can be conceived of as a 'jurisgenerative act, and develops some reflections as to the utility of postmodernism and deconstruction for others who aspire to the legal recognition of difference.
