The Cambridge companion to Irish modernism The story of Irish modernism constitutes a remarkable chapter in the movements 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 OBrien Máirtín O 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