A History of Irish Literature and the Environment

A broad survey of Irish literature's environmental focus, this book shows the significance of narratives in addressing the climate crisis.

Malcolm Sen (Edited by)

9781108490139, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 July 2022

454 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.9 cm, 0.79 kg

From Gaelic annals and medieval poetry to contemporary Irish literature, A History of Irish Literature and the Environment examines the connections between the Irish environment and Irish literary culture. Themes such as Ireland's island ecology, the ecological history of colonial-era plantation and deforestation, the Great Famine, cultural attitudes towards animals and towards the land, the postcolonial politics of food and energy generation, and the Covid-19 pandemic - this book shows how these factors determine not only a history of the Irish environment but also provide fresh perspectives from which to understand and analyze Irish literature. An international team of contributors provides a comprehensive analysis of Irish literature to show how the literary has always been deeply engaged with environmental questions in Ireland, a crucial  new perspective in an age of climate crisis. A History of Irish Literature and the Environment reveals the socio-cultural, racial, and gendered aspects embedded in questions of the Irish environment.

Introduction: Culture, climate, capital, and contagion Malcolm Sen
1. Landscape and literature in medieval Ireland Amy C. Mulligan
2. The gaelic annals and climate, 431–1649 CE Francis Ludlow and Conor Kostick
3. The environmental vocabulary of Irish folklore Bairbre Ní Fhloinn
4. Arboreal landscapes and the construction of Ireland Anna Pilz
5. Famine and ecology, 1750–1900 Margaret Kelleher
6. Political ecology in nationalist literature, 1880–1922 Justin Dolan Stover
7. Solastalgic modernism and the West in Irish literature (1900–1950) Katherine O'Callaghan
8. The ecology of the Irish big house (1900–1950) Kelly Sullivan
9. Refuge and domestic space in northern Irish poetry (c1940 to the present) Adam Hanna
10. Irish travellers, the environment, and literature Mary Burke
11. The oceanic imaginaries of modern Irish writing John Brannigan
12. Landscape in Irish language literature: poetry and prose (1900–2000) Louis De Paor
13. Poetry and place Eric Falci
14. Animals and climate crisis in Irish poetry Katherine Kirkpatrick
15. Animals and animality in Irish fiction Maureen O'Connor
16. The political ecology of food and hunger (1950-present) Miriam Mara
17. Built environments and lived ecologies in contemporary Irish poetry, 1998-present Julia C. Obert and Nolan Goetzinger
18. Transnationalism and environment in contemporary Irish literature Christine Cusick
19. Energy futures in contemporary Irish fiction Sharae Deckard
20. An ordinary crisis: SARS CoV-2 and Irish studies Malcolm Sen.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Climate change [RNPG], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Literary reference works [DSR]