"Drawing on sources such as the land, the Church, the past, changing politics, and literary styles, Irish writers ranging from W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Augusta Gregory to Roddy Doyle, Kate O'Brien, Colm Toibin, John Banville, and Seamus Heaney explore what it means to be a writer in Ireland"--Provided by publisher.
'Can we not build up a national tradition, a national literature, which shall be none the less Irish in spirit from being English in language?' W. B. YeatsThis anthology traces the history of modern Irish literature from the revolutionary era of the late eighteenth century to the early years of political independence. From Charlotte Brooke and Edmund Burke to Elizabeth Bowen and Louis MacNeice, the anthology shows how, in forging a tradition of theirown, Irish writers have continually challenged and renewed the ways in which Ireland is imagined and defined. The anthology includes a wide-ranging and generous selection of fiction, poetry, and drama. Three plays by W. B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory, and J. M. Synge are printed in their entirety, along with the opening episode of James Joyce's Ulysses. The volume also includes letters, speeches, songs,memoirs, essays, and travel writings, many of which are difficult to obtain elsewhere.'Stephen Regan's anthology vividly and valiantly presents a nation, and a national literature, coming into being.' Paul Muldoon
This is the first anthropological study of writers, writing and contemporary literary culture. Drawing on the flourishing literary scene in Ireland as the basis for her research, Helena Wulff explores the social world of contemporary Irish writers, examining fiction, novels, short stories as well as journalism. Discussing writers such as John Banville, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, Frank McCourt, Anne Enright, Deirdre Madden, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Colum McCann, David Park, and Joseph O ́Connor, Wulff reveals how the making of a writer's career is built on the 'rhythms of writing': long hours of writing in solitude alternate with public events such as book readings and media appearances. Destined to launch a new field of enquiry, Rhythms of Writing is essential reading for students and scholars in anthropology, literary studies, creative writing, cultural studies, and Irish studies.
Granta 135 is a snapshot of contemporary Ireland, which shows where one of the world's most distinguished and independent literary traditions is today. Here international stars rub shoulders with a new generation of talent from a country which keeps producing exceptional writers. This issue features Kevin Barry on Cork, 'as intimate and homicidal as a little Marseille'; Lucy Caldwell imagining forbidden first love in Belfast; an exclusive extract of Colm Tibn's next novel, about growing up in the shadow of a famous father; fiction from Emma Donoghue about Victorian Ireland's miraculous fasting girls; and Sara Baume describing the wild allure and threat of the rural landscape. Also featuring fiction from Colin Barrett, John Connell, Mary O'Donoghue, Roddy Doyle, Siobhn Mannion, Belinda McKeon, Sally Rooney, Donal Ryan and William Wall; poetry from Tara Bergin, Leontia Flynn and Stephen Sexton; photography by Doug DuBois, Stephen Dock and Birte Kaufmann; with original portraits of the authors in their environment by acclaimed street photographer Eamonn Doyle.
Exploring the fascination of Irish folklore and storytelling for collectors, scholars, writers, and readers, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the complex relationship between oral traditions and literary practices in Ireland. The rich contributions build upon existing studies of the nature and importance of Irish folklore, acknowledging the symbiotic relationship that exists between storytellers of oral narrative on the one hand, and literary storytellers on the other. The book deepens our understanding of the creative use of oral traditions by leading Irish writers, such as W.B. Yeats, Padraig Pearse, Peig Sayers, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, and Anne Enright. Fresh perspectives are offered on the continuing evolution of folklore collection and scholarship in Ireland, while new contexts are provided for evaluating the diverse ways in which Irish writers have drawn on traditional narratives, beliefs, and practices, exemplified by the blending of folklore and individual creativity. This collection is a timely treasury for those interested in Irish writing, identity, life, and ideas. *** "Two sections immediately captured this reviewer's attention: the essays on the modernist project in creating the National Folklore Collection fascinate, and Margaret O'Neill offers tremendous insight into Anne Enright's postmodern work utilizing a psychoanalytic lens, particularly regarding the funeral tradition of keening." - Choice, July 2015, Vol. 51, No.11 [Subject: Irish Studies, Literary Criticism, Folklore]
Examines why Young Ireland attached such importance to the writing of history, how it went about writing that history, and what impact their historical writings had.
23 of today's top Irish-American authors provide personal accounts of how they found their voices in the Big Apple, and editor Colin Broderick provides background essays on Brendan Behan, Maeve Brennan, Frank McCourt, and other Irish-American writers of the past.
In Writing Home: The 'New Irish' Poets, more than 50 poets from all over the world explore the many meanings and connotations of the word 'home'. Hailing from places as diverse as India and Italy, Poland and Pakistan, Canada and the Democratic Republic of the Congo - as well as the US, the UK and Ireland itself - together they present an updated picture of a changing country while, at the same time, expanding the very definition of 'writing from Ireland'. The poems gathered here are as various and lively as we might hope for. Some contributors might be said to 'write home' in the traditional sense, describing and explaining what they find in the place they now live; for others 'writing home' is a determined, creative act of self-definition. For all of them there is the real sense that writing is itself a kind of home-building, not least at a time when so many borders, physical and psychological, are under threat of closure across the world.