The first task, says Heininge (British and world literature and women's studies, George Fox U., Oregon), is to define what is and is not Irish, to create an Irishness really, because it is not some Platonic ideal floating around that can just be discovered and named, and not just any Irishness but one suited to the job at hand. That accomplished, she describes how Irish playwrights have tried to create a sense of identity within a colonial structure while their every attempt to portray a serious character onstage is dismissed as comic. She draws on post-colonial and performative theory to explore authenticity, ambivalence, reputation, mimesis and mimicry, performativity, and from communism to globalism. The study served as her doctoral dissertation at the University of California-Davis, and parts of it have been published separately. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)