Writing the Irish West
Subtitle: ecologies and traditions
By: Eamonn Wall
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Notre Dame, Ind
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9780268044237
Subjects: English literature; Literature and society; In literature; History and criticism; National characteristics, Irish, in literature; Irish authors
Description: In recent decades, a large and well-regarded volume of creative work has emerged from the West of Ireland, written by residents of the region, by those raised in West of Ireland families outside the region, and by seasonal and occasional visitors. The fiction of John McGahern, the plays and films of Martin McDonagh, Tim Robinson's maps and place studies, the work of Richard Murphy, and the poetry of Mary O'Malley, Moya Cannon, and Sean Lysaght are known and admired worldwide. Yet, for all that has been made of the Western themes and settings in the work of such writers, and others, little effort has been made to examine their work collectively and in depth. Eamonn Wall's 'Writing the Irish West: Ecologies and Traditions' is the first critical study to examine these seven contemporary Irish writers in their shared Western context. Wall describes, analyzes, and contextualizes their work to show the fundamental ways in which the region has influenced and shaped it. Certain themes and commonplaces recur obsessively: the bilingual nature of Western life and language, landscape, gender, poverty, the individual's relationship to nature and place, connections between Christianity and paganism, the overpowering weight of history, and each author's complex relationship to the Irish Literary Revival of Yeats, Lady Gregory, and J. M. Synge. Although well-developed theoretical approaches to reading Western American literature have been practiced for years, no such approaches exist in Irish discourse. Wall draws on extensive research on the literature of the American West for a comparative study that places the Irish and American Wests side by side. Underlined by an engagement with the role ecology plays in the study of literature, 'Writing the Irish West' highlights uncanny connections between the works of West-of-Ireland writers and their Western American counterparts. --
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-194) and index.
Table of contents: title: Adequate steps: Tim Robinson's Stones of Aran; title: Wings beating on stone: Richard Murphy's ecopoetry; title: Tracing the poetry of Mary O'Malley; title: High ground: John McGahern's western world; title: Wild West show: the plays of Martin McDonagh; title: Across a blue sound: Seøn Lysaght's Clare Island survey; title: Carrying the songs: the poetry of Moya Cannon.