Irish Fiction since the 1960s

This collection of fourteen essays maps the landscape of Irish fiction since 1960, and assesses the extraordinary literary achievement of Irish novelists and short story writers, North and South of the border, over that time. The book shows how these writers have both continued and challenged conventional notions of Irish fiction; and how they have contributed, in stimulating and inventive style, to the continuous examination of Irish identity, culture and politics, while making their fiction resonate with wide cultural, intellectual and human interest. The collection includes essays which focus on major individual writers - Samuel Beckett, Brian Moore, Jennifer Johnston, Maurice Leitch, John McGahern, Patrick McGinley and John Banville. There are also general essays of a more explicitly comparative and thematic nature covering such topics as the impact of modernisation on Irish fiction, the contemporary 'Big House' novel, the Protestant imagination, the 'Troubles' Novel, the importance of the past, childhood and women's narratives, constructions of masculinity, and women short story writers. By closely analysing key texts, exploring the relationships between texts, and between texts and their social, cultural and political contexts, and by examining significant themes and preoccupations, these essays offer valuable insights into the variety and complexity of modern irish fiction from a range of viewpoints.The contributors include Patrick Walsh, Robin Marsh, Robert garratt, Elmer kennedy-Andrews, Eamonn Hughes, Heidi Hansson, Paul Davies, Declan Kiberd, John Goodby and Jo Furber, Kathleen Devine, Barry Sloan, Richard York and Patrick Crotty.