Irish Essays

Essential reading for all those interested in Irish literature and culture and its far-reaching effects on the world.

Denis Donoghue (Author)

9781107006904, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 April 2011

270 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.8 cm, 0.55 kg

'It is a pleasure to read criticism and cultural analysis of this elevated kind … [Donoghue] is silver-tongued in capturing ideas, unlocking literary meanings and honouring the imagination.' The Times Literary Supplement

Denis Donoghue has been a key figure in Irish studies and an important public intellectual in Ireland, the UK and US throughout his career. These essays represent the best of his writing and operate in conversation with one another. He probes the questions of Irish national and cultural identity that underlie the finest achievements of Irish writing in all genres. Together, the essays form an unusually lively and far-reaching study of three crucial Irish writers – Swift, Yeats and Joyce – together with other voices including Mangan, Beckett, Trevor, McGahern and Doyle. Donoghue's forceful arguments, deep engagement with the critical tradition, buoyant prose and extensive learning are all exemplified in this collection. This book is essential reading for all those interested in Irish literature and culture and its far-reaching effects on the world.

Introduction
Part I. Ireland: 1. Race, nation, state
Part II. On Swift: 2. Reading Gulliver's Travels
3. Swift and the association of ideas
Part III. On Yeats: 4. Three presences: Yeats, Eliot, Pound
5. The occult Yeats
6. Yeats's Shakespeare
7. Yeats: trying to be modern
Part IV. On Joyce: 8. A plain approach to Ulysses
9. Joyce and the revolution of the word
Part V. Other Occasions: 10. Mangan
11. Beckett in Foxrock
12. William Trevor
13. John McGahern
14. The early Roddy Doyle
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary companions, book reviews & guides [DSRC], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary essays [DNF], Prose: non-fiction [DN], Poetry [DC]