'Does a Man Die at Your Feet ...': Gender, History, And Representation in the Catastrophist (Critical Essay‪)‬

Ronan Bennett's 1998 novel The Catastrophist (London: Review) takes place in an African milieu at a key historical moment of decolonization and of cynical neo-colonial manipulation. Set principally in 1959-60 in the then Belgian Congo, The Catastrophist (which appeared in the year of the Belfast Agreement) also contains, within its representation of international history, an important if tactically muted Irish sub-text.