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Irish literature.
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In the following essay, Deane presents an overview of Irish literature between 1940 and 1980.
Fiction
In the thirties and forties of this century, a number of writers emerge whose careers as artists a...
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In the following excerpt, Maxwell compares and contrasts the plays of Samuel Beckett and Brian Friel.
(i)
Martin. I was the like of the little children do be listening to the stories of an old woman, ...
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In the following excerpt, Teevan focuses on Greek tragedy adaptations in the Irish theater and poetry.
“Each nation … fashion[s] a classical Greece in its own image.”
—W.H...
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In the following essay, Caswell discusses the fiction of Brian Moore, Kate O'Brien, Frank O'Conner, and Brinsley MacNamara.
It is a commonplace in the study of modern Irish literature th...
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In the following essay, Harmon presents a brief overview of the Irish novelists Patrick Boyle, Edna O' Brien, John Broderick, Richard Power, and Andrew Ganly.
So much attention has been given t...
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In the following excerpt, Peterson compares and contrasts the short fiction of Frank O'Connor with the works of Mary Lavin and James Joyce.
Frank O'Connor, one of Ireland's most p...
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In the following essay, Freyer examines the fiction of Liam O'Flaherty, Sean O'Faolain, and John McGahern.
The English upper classes have an irritatingly patronizing way of saying: ...
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In the following essay, Lubbers detects similar themes in Irish fiction since James Joyce, focusing on works by such authors as Brian Moore, Frank O'Connor, and John McGahern.
Irish fiction of ...
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In the following essay, Cahalan discusses the fiction of Benedict Kiely, Brian Moore, John McGahern, Aidan Higgins, John Banville, William Trevor, James Plunkett, Edna O'Brien, Janet McNeill, I...
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In the following essay, Kearney discusses works by Flann O'Brien, Francis Stuart, and John Banville.
What was to become of the Irish novel after Joyce and Beckett? How would it be possible to g...
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In the following essay, Ingersoll discusses humor in the works of James Joyce, Flann O' Brien, and Bryan MacMahon.
Modern Irish literature has had its share of great poems, novels, and plays, b...
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In the following essay, Booker discusses epistemology in the works of Samuel Beckett and Flann O'Brien.
A fascinating scene concludes Samuel Beckett's Murphy in which the old, crippled M...
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In the following essay, Imhof examines the fiction of Sean O'Faolain, Sebastian Barry, Dermot Bolger, Aidan Higgins, Kevin Kiely, Aidan Mathews, Brian McHale, and Robert McLiam Wilson.
In Sean ...
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In the following excerpt, Kreilkamp discusses the “Big House” Irish novels of Aidan Higgins and John Banville.
Among contemporary Irish novelists who write about the Big House, only Aida...
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In the following essay, Torchiana compares the poetry of John Montague, Richard Murphy, Austin Clarke, and Thomas Kinsella.
Contemporary Irish poetry written in English can show nothing comparable to ...
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In the following essay, Dunn discusses the contemporary poetry of Northern Ireland, including Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, James Simmons, and John Montague.
In the North of Ireland, poets—most o...
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In the following essay, Johnston compares works by Thomas Kinsella, John Montague, Richard Murphy, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Seamus Deane, Richard Ryan, and Paul Muldoon.
But the stupidity Of root, ...
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In the following review, Deane assesses works by Seamus Heaney, Thomas Kinsella, Derek Mahon, and Richard Murphy.
Reading these five books, [Wintering Out, North, Notes from the Land of the Dead and O...
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In the following essay, Frazier presents an overview of Irish poetry after W. B. Yeats's death, focusing on Austin Clarke, Patrick Kavanagh, Ciarán Carson, Michael Longley, and Derek Mah...
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In the following essay, Reilly responds to Adrian Frazier's essay on “Irish Poetry after Yeats.”
The keynote poem in The Literary Review's Winter, 1979, issue on “Ir...
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In the following essay, Brown discusses the poetry of Northern Ireland poets Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, John Montague, and Derek Mahon.
The first poem in a recent anthology Poets from the North o...
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In the following essay, Garratt traces the evolution of Irish poetry from the Irish Renaissance to the international acclaim of Seamus Heaney.
The following essay offers a reading of Irish poetry sinc...
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In the following essay, Drexel reviews works by Ciarán Carson, Medbh McGuckian, and Paul Muldoon.
Fifty years after his death, Yeats's influence on Irish poetry is finally beginning to f...
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In the following essay, Kennedy discusses modernism, politics, and religion as elements of contemporary Irish poetry.
The poet Patrick Kavanagh once quipped that Ireland has a standing army of at leas...
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In the following essay, Smyth examines feminist issues as presented in the poetry of several contemporary Irish female poets.
The preoccupation with Irishness as the primary terrain of criticism has d...
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In the following essay, Kerrigan compares and contrasts the poetry of Ciaran Carson and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.
In the human geography of these islands, diversity is the rule. Plainly, however, ...
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In the following essay, Schirmer examines the poetry of Irish women writers Sheila Wingfield, Blanaid Salkeld, Mary Devenport O'Neill, Maire MacEntee, and Eithne Strong.
Irish women poets writi...
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In the following essay, Harmon offers an outline of nineteenth-century Irish literature, noting the ways in which the novels of the time period reflected the socio-political structure of the country.
...
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In the following essay, Howard analyzes Maria Edgeworth's treatment of Irish issues in her 1814 Ormond. Howard demonstrates how in this novel, an increasingly larger gap between Edgeworth...
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In the following essay, Colin B. Atkinson and Jo Atkinson review the Irish novels written by Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan, and demonstrate how Morgan's work was typical of that of the new and gr...
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In the following essay, Dunne defends Lady Morgan's work against charges that it is "wildly imaginative and essentially frivolous," arguing that her Irish novels combine realism w...
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In the following essay, Flanagan argues that nineteenth-century Irish novels were all written, to some degree, with a propagandist goal of explaining or defending Ireland or the Irish character to an ...
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In the following essay, Law surveys the novels written by the most prominent nineteenth-century Irish authors and comments on the strengths and weaknesses of these authors' major works.
Poetry&...
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In the following essay, Gwynn reviews the works of upper and lower class authors considered to be "native" Irish.
Before steam transport, Edinburgh and Dublin were a longer journey from ...
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In the following essay, Krans examines the lives and works of novelists born in Ireland and raised as Catholics, discussing in particular how these novelists portrayed the lives and character of the I...
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In the following essay, Kiely assesses William Carleton's place in Irish literary history and explores how Carleton turned away from topics pertinent to the Irish peasantry in the writing of hi...
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In the following excerpt, Cronin analyzes several of Gerald Griffin's novels, demonstrating Griffin's interest in and deep compassion for the Irish peasantry. Cronin argues that while Gr...
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Critical Essay by Seamus Deane
