Key Features:A unique anthology covering 150 years of Irish writing in English across a wide range of literary genres.
- The best-value single-volume anthology of Irish writing, featuring essays, speeches, and memoirs as well as fiction, poems, plays, and stories.
- Charts the emergence of a distinctive Irish literature in which Irish writers from Edmund Burke to Sean O'Casey - forged a tradition of their own using the English language for their own purposes.
- 'vividly and valiantly presents a nation, and a national literature, coming into being' Paul Muldoon
- Writers' biographies provide a wealth of additional information, and a chronology provides a useful summary of key dates and events in Irish history.
- Includes three plays in their entirety and the opening episode of Ulysses, material rarely anthologized.
Description:
'Can we not build up a national tradition, a national literature, which shall be none the less Irish in spirit from being English in language?' W. B. Yeats
This anthology traces the history of modern Irish literature from the revolutionary era of the late eighteenth century to the early years of political independence. It covers 150 years, from the writings of Charlotte Brooke and Edmund Burke to those of Elizabeth Bowen and Louis MacNeice, and it shows how these writings continually challenge and renew the ways in which Ireland is imagined and defined.
The introduction offers a clear account of the growth of an Irish national literature between 1789 and 1939. It explores the concept of cultural nationalism and the distinctive features of Irish literature written in English. It also highlights the concern of Irish writers with questions of national destiny and identity.
The anthology includes a wide-ranging and generous selection of fiction, poetry, and drama. Three plays by W. B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory, and J. M. Synge are printed in their entirety, along with the opening episode of James Joyce's Ulysses. The volume also includes letters, speeches, songs, memoirs, essays, and travel writings, many of which are difficult to obtain elsewhere.
- The best-value single-volume anthology of Irish writing, featuring essays, speeches, and memoirs as well as fiction, poems, plays, and stories.
- Charts the emergence of a distinctive Irish literature in which Irish writers from Edmund Burke to Sean O'Casey - forged a tradition of their own using the English language for their own purposes.
- 'vividly and valiantly presents a nation, and a national literature, coming into being' Paul Muldoon
- Writers' biographies provide a wealth of additional information, and a chronology provides a useful summary of key dates and events in Irish history.
- Includes three plays in their entirety and the opening episode of Ulysses, material rarely anthologized.
Description:
'Can we not build up a national tradition, a national literature, which shall be none the less Irish in spirit from being English in language?' W. B. Yeats
This anthology traces the history of modern Irish literature from the revolutionary era of the late eighteenth century to the early years of political independence. It covers 150 years, from the writings of Charlotte Brooke and Edmund Burke to those of Elizabeth Bowen and Louis MacNeice, and it shows how these writings continually challenge and renew the ways in which Ireland is imagined and defined.
The introduction offers a clear account of the growth of an Irish national literature between 1789 and 1939. It explores the concept of cultural nationalism and the distinctive features of Irish literature written in English. It also highlights the concern of Irish writers with questions of national destiny and identity.
The anthology includes a wide-ranging and generous selection of fiction, poetry, and drama. Three plays by W. B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory, and J. M. Synge are printed in their entirety, along with the opening episode of James Joyce's Ulysses. The volume also includes letters, speeches, songs, memoirs, essays, and travel writings, many of which are difficult to obtain elsewhere.