Teaching John McGahern's the Dark

Anna Teekell (Edited by), Ellen Scheible (Edited by), Barry Houlihan (Contributions by), Enda Duffy (Contributions by), Frank Shovlin (Contributions by), Kathleen Costello-Sullivan (Contributions by), Anna Teekell (Edited by), Ellen Scheible (Edited by)

9780815611783

Paperback / softback, published 15 October 2025

98 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.4 cm, 0.183 kg

"Original and very much needed, given the relevance of this novel in the Irish literary canon. (Marisol Morales-Ladrón, coeditor of Deirdre Madden: New Critical Essays) This timely new edition . . . equips educators and students to understand, discuss, and address those forms of abuse that flourish under conditions of silence." —Margot Gayle Backus, coeditor of The Child Sex Scandal and Modern Irish Literature: Writing the Unspeakable

Teaching John McGahern's The Dark provide an indispensable companion to the classic Irish novel. With an introduction aimed at first-time readers and four critical essays, this edition guides readers through the novel’s famously controversial history. While The Dark was initially banned in Ireland for obscenity, scholars now demonstrate that McGahern’s novel of adolescence is not obscene, but revelatory, exposing the corruption underlying authority structures in mid-century Ireland—from the family to the church, to the government’s willingness to ignore national and communal trauma. The Dark is a story of alarming brutality, surprising tenderness, and poetic lyricism; a reflection of Irish society that maintains historical significance as contemporary Ireland continues to build its national identity. An invaluable resource, this edition gives students and scholars a rich source of contextualizing material to address the themes and significance of McGahern’s complex novel.

Introduction: Seeing in the Dark, Anna Teekell

Essays

1. "The Four-Letter Word": Censorship and "The Dark, "Frank Shovlin

2. Documenting The Dark: John McGahern and the Archive, Barry Houlihan

3. A Very Special Violence: John McGahern’s Biopolitical Novel, Enda Duffy

4. Reading Trauma in The Dark, Kathleen Costello-Sullivan