Irish Literature in Transition, 1700–1780: Volume 1

Cambridge University Press, 3/12/2020
EAN 9781108427500, ISBN10: 1108427502

Hardcover, 424 pages, 23.1 x 16.3 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

This volume examines eighteenth-century Irish literature, highlighting the diversity of texts, authors and approaches that characterises contemporary studies of the period. Chapters consider the contexts of history, politics, language, philosophy, gender, sexuality, and the environment while situating Irish literature in relation to Ireland, Britain, Europe and beyond. Well-known authors (Jonathan Swift, Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith) are read alongside less familiar writers (including Mary Barber, William Chaigneau, Frances Sheridan, and Samuel Whyte) and popular and ephemeral literatures take their place with formerly canonical texts. It demonstrates the exciting vitality and richness of eighteenth-century Irish literature - written and performed - as well as its complex intersections with different communities and traditions. This book will be a key resource to scholars and students of Irish eighteenth-century studies as well as readers generally interested in questions of Anglophone and Irish-language culture, representations of gender and sexuality, and national and trans-national identities.

Part I. Starting Points
1. Starting-points and moving targets
transition and the early modern Marie-Louise Coolahan
2. 'We Irish'
writing and national identity from Berkeley to Burke Ian Campbell Ross
3. Re-viewing Swift Brean Hammond
Part II. Philosophical and Political Frameworks
4. The prejudices of Enlightenment David Dwan
5. The Molyneux problem and Irish Enlightenment Darrell Jones
6. Samuel Whyte and the politics of eighteenth-century Irish private theatricals Helen M. Burke
Part III. Local, National and Transnational Contexts
7. Land and landscape in Irish poetry in English, 1700–1780 Andrew Carpenter
8. The idea of an eighteenth-century national theatre Conrad Brunström
9. Transnational influence and exchange
the intersections between Irish and French sentimental novels Amy Prendergast
10. 'An example to the whole world'
patriotism and imperialism in early Irish fiction Daniel Sanjiv Roberts
Part IV. Gender and Sexuality
11. The province of poetry
women poets in early eighteenth-century Ireland Aileen Douglas
12. Queering eighteenth-century Irish writing
Yahoo, Fribble, Freke Declan Kavanagh
13. 'Brightest wits and bravest soldiers'
Ireland, masculinity, and the politics of paternity Rebecca Anne Barr
14. Fictions of sisterhood in eighteenth-century Irish literature Moyra Haslett
Part V. Transcultural Contexts
15. The popular criminal narrative and the development of the Irish novel Joe Lines
16. Gaelic influences and echoes in the Irish novel, 1700–1780 Anne Markey
17. New beginning or bearer of tradition? Early Irish fiction and the construction of the child Clíona Ó Gallchoir
Part VI. Retrospective Readings
18. Re-imagining feminist protest in contemporary translation
The Lament for art O'Leary and The Midnight Court Lesa Ní Mhunghaile
19. 'Our darkest century'
the Irish eighteenth century in memory and modernity James Ward.