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On the Uses of History in Recent Irish Writing

Klein, Bernhard (2007) On the Uses of History in Recent Irish Writing. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 224 pp. ISBN 978-0-7190-7585-8. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:3827)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/cgi-bin...

Abstract

This book offers a critical reassessment of the uses of history in contemporary Irish literature and culture. It argues that in much recent Irish writing, history is approached not as the proverbial ‘nightmare’ from which Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus tried to awake, but as a rich, imaginative resource. Drawing on recent debates in Irish literary and cultural criticism, On the uses of history in recent Irish writing explores the varied, creative, and often critically challenging forms of rewriting Ireland’s troubled past in contemporary prose, drama and poetry.

Individual chapters focus on literary treatments of the Tudor reconquest, the Famine, the Northern Irish Troubles and other key events in Irish history, highlighting in a series of close readings the unique forms of historical thought enabled by different literary forms and genres. Canonical works by authors such as Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Tom Paulin, Brian Friel, Stewart Parker and Frank McGuinness are considered alongside lesser known writers and texts, placing each in their wider social, cultural and historical contexts.

Item Type: Book
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN80 Criticism
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Depositing User: Bernhard Klein
Date Deposited: 27 Jun 2008 09:49 UTC
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 09:35 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/3827 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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