Irish Literature in Transition, 1940–1980: Volume 5

A provocative range of essays on twentieth-century Irish authors, critics and culture framed in contexts of transition and transnationalism.

Eve Patten (Edited by)

9781108480444, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 March 2020

406 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.7 cm, 0.69 kg

'The final essay of the collection, by Shaun Richards, is a very useful overview of the development of critical approaches and practices in the period. Irish Literature in Transition 1940-1980 is an expertly-edited collection of essays. The essays are lucid, insightful and jargon-free. For Irish Studies scholars of this period, it is indispensable.' Eoghan Smith, Irish Studies Review

This volume explores the history of Irish writing between the Second World War (or the 'Emergency') in 1939 and the re-emergence of violence in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It situates modern Irish writing within the contexts of cultural transition and transnational connection, often challenging pre-existing perceptions of Irish literature in this period as stagnant and mundane. While taking into account the grip of Irish censorship and cultural nationalism during the mid-twentieth century, these essays identify an Irish literary culture stimulated by international political horizons and fully responsive to changes in publishing, readership, and education. The book combines valuable cultural surveys with focussed discussions of key literary moments, and of individual authors such as Seán O'Faoláin, Samuel Beckett, Edna O'Brien, and John McGahern.

Introduction Eve Patten
Part I. After the War: Ideologies in Transition: 1. The Second World War and its literary legacies Guy Woodward
2. Outside the whale: Seán O'Faoláin and the European public intellectual Brad Kent
3. Irish writers and Europe Aidan O'Malley
4. Becoming a Republic: Irish writing in transition Nicholas Allen
Part II. Genres in Transition: 5. Intermodernism and the middlebrow in Irish writing John Brannigan
6. Transitional life writing: Frank O'Connor and the autobiographical tradition Muireann Leech
7. Somehow it is not the same: Irish theatre and transition Chris Morash
8. Samuel Beckett, Flann O'Brien and the literature of absurdity David Wheatley
Part III. Sex, Politics and Literary Protest: 9. Censorship, law and literature Eibhear Walshe
10. Sex, dissent and Irish fiction: reading John McGahern Frank Shovlin
11. History, memory and protest in Irish theatre Emilie Pine
12. Violence, politics and the poetry of the troubles Rosie Lavan
Part IV. Identities and Connections: 13. State, space and experiment in Irish language prose writing Máirín Nic Eoin
14. Anglo-Ireland: the big house novel in transition Heather Ingman
15. American-Irish literary relations Ellen McWilliams
16. 'Home rule in our literature': Irish-British poetic relations Tom Walker
Part V. Retrospective Frameworks: Criticism in Transition: 17. Literary biography in transition Paul Delaney
18. Publishing, Penguin and Irish writing Paul Rooney
19. Curriculum to canon: Irish writing and education Margaret Kelleher
20. Critics, criticism and the formation of an Irish literary canon Shaun Richards.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1], Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature & literary studies [D]