Irish literature | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 15 pages of analysis & critique of Irish literature.

Irish literature | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 15 pages of analysis & critique of Irish literature.
This section contains 4,264 words
(approx. 15 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Thomas Flanagan

SOURCE: "The Nature of the Irish Novel," in Family Chronicles: Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, ed. by Cóilín Owens, Wolfhound Press, 1987, pp. 41-51.

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 English audience; Flanagan contends that this was the weakest feature of the Irish novel.

Nineteenth-century Ireland1 was a land splintered by divided loyalties and ancient hatreds. Sir Walter Scott, visiting the country in 1825, noted with some contempt: "Their factions have been so long envenomed, and they have such narrow ground to do their battle in, that they are like men fighting with daggers in a hogshead."2 Much later Yeats, writing as an Irishman and in bitterness, would make the same point:

 Out of Ireland have we come.
Great hatred, little room,
Maimed us...

(read more)

This section contains 4,264 words
(approx. 15 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Thomas Flanagan
Copyrights
Gale
Critical Essay by Thomas Flanagan from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.