Irish Essays
Cambridge University Press, 4/14/2011
EAN 9780521187282, ISBN10: 0521187281
Paperback, 270 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Denis Donoghue has been a key figure in Irish studies and an important public intellectual in Ireland, the UK and US throughout his career. These essays represent the best of his writing and operate in conversation with one another. He probes the questions of Irish national and cultural identity that underlie the finest achievements of Irish writing in all genres. Together, the essays form an unusually lively and far-reaching study of three crucial Irish writers – Swift, Yeats and Joyce – together with other voices including Mangan, Beckett, Trevor, McGahern and Doyle. Donoghue's forceful arguments, deep engagement with the critical tradition, buoyant prose and extensive learning are all exemplified in this collection. This book is essential reading for all those interested in Irish literature and culture and its far-reaching effects on the world.
Introduction
Part I. Ireland
1. Race, nation, state
Part II. On Swift
2. Reading Gulliver's Travels
3. Swift and the association of ideas
Part III. On Yeats
4. Three presences
Yeats, Eliot, Pound
5. The occult Yeats
6. Yeats's Shakespeare
7. Yeats
trying to be modern
Part IV. On Joyce
8. A plain approach to Ulysses
9. Joyce and the revolution of the word
Part V. Other Occasions
10. Mangan
11. Beckett in Foxrock
12. William Trevor
13. John McGahern
14. The early Roddy Doyle
Bibliography
Index.