Description
Book SynopsisThe story of Irish modernism constitutes a remarkable chapter in the movement's history. This volume serves as an incisive and accessible overview of that brilliant period in which Irish artists not only helped to create a distinctive nationalist literature but also changed the face of European and anglophone culture. This Companion surveys developments in modernist poetry, drama, fiction and the visual arts. Early innovators, such as Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Jack B. Yeats and James Joyce, as well as late modernists, including Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, Flann O'Brien, MÃirtÃn à Cadhain and Francis Bacon, all appear here. Significantly, however, this volume ranges beyond such iconic figures to open up new ground with chapters on Irish women modernists, Irish American modernism, Irish language modernism and the critical reception of modernism in Ireland.
Trade Review'The list of contributors is a who's who of scholars working in the field. A comprehensive time line in the first few pages provides a thorough historical grounding in the socioeconomic, political and cultural events that contributed to the formation of Irish modernism. If this book is treated as the first window into the wider world of scholarship, then Cleary has more than ably accomplished his task.' A. P. Pennino, Choice
'… remarkably successful … wide-ranging yet remarkably coherent, a notable achievement … Canadian Journal of Irish Studies
Table of Contents1. Intellectual and aesthetic influences Jean-Michel Rabate; 2. European, American, and imperial conjectures Joe Cleary; 3. The Irish revival and modernism Ronan McDonald; 4. Style and idiom Barry McCrea; 5. W. B. Yeats and modernist poetry Laura O'Connor; 6. James Joyce and the mutations of the modernist novel Emer Nolan; 7. Modernist experiments in Irish theatre Ben Levitas; 8. Visual modernisms Luke Gibbons; 9. Women and modernism Anne Fogarty; 10. Irish language modernisms Louis de Paor; 11. Irish American modernisms Joe Cleary; 12. Critical receptions of literary modernism Enda Duffy; 13. Irish modernist imaginaries Michael Valdez Moses.
