{"product_id":"reading-the-contemporary-irish-novel-1987-2007-isbn-9781444336207","title":"Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987 - 2007","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eReading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007\u003c\/i\u003e is the authoritative guide to some of the most inventive and challenging fiction to emerge from Ireland in the last 25 years. Meticulously researched, it presents detailed interpretations of novels by some of Ireland’s most eminent writers.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eThis is the first text-focused critical survey of the Irish novel from 1987 to 2007, providing detailed readings of 11 seminal Irish novels\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eA timely and much needed text in a largely uncharted critical field\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eProvides detailed interpretations of individual novels by some of the country’s most critically celebrated writers, including Sebastian Barry, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Patrick McCabe, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien and Colm Tóibín\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eInvestigates the ways in which Irish novels have sought to deal with and reflect a changing Ireland\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eThe fruit of many years reading, teaching and research on the subject by a leading and highly respected academic in the field\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e  Acknowledgements ix  \u003cp\u003eIntroduction: Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007 1\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1 In the FamilyWay: Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy (1987–1991) 23\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 House Arrest: John McGahern’s Amongst Women (1990) 51\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 Malignant Shame: Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy (1992) 75\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4 Uncertain Terms, Unstable Sands: Colm T´ oib´ýn’s The Heather Blazing (1992) 105\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5 Unbearable Proximities:William Trevor’s Felicia’s Journey (1994) 127\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6 History’s Hostages: Edna O’Brien’s House of Splendid Isolation (1994) 151\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e7 Shadows in the Air: Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark (1996) 173\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e8 The Politics of Pity: Sebastian Barry’s A Long Long Way (2005) 197\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 Mourning Remains Unresolved: Anne Enright’s The Gathering (2007) 217\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBibliography 243\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex 259\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“In addition to developing intellectually bold arguments, Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel is also enjoyable to read – an enviable achievement for any academic book.  There is an ease to Harte’s style and a lightness of touch in the way he deals with an expansive range of socio-historical contexts that makes this book deserving of a broad readership beyond the walls of the university.”  (\u003ci\u003eIrish Studies Review\u003c\/i\u003e, 18 March 2015)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“It offers an excellent primer in each chapter that I can easily imagine being of great use not only to students of literature, but also to those of us engaged in the work of teaching and studying such works.”  (\u003ci\u003eNew Madrid\u003c\/i\u003e, 1 October 2015)\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLiam Harte\u003c\/b\u003e is Senior Lecturer in Irish and Modern Literature at the University of Manchester. He is the author or editor of seven books, including \u003ci\u003eContemporary Irish Fiction: Themes, Tropes, Theories\u003c\/i\u003e (2000; co-edited with Michael Parker), \u003ci\u003eIreland Beyond Boundaries: Mapping Irish Studies in the Twenty-First Century\u003c\/i\u003e (2007; co-edited with Yvonne Whelan) and \u003ci\u003eModern Irish Autobiography: Self, Nation and Society\u003c\/i\u003e (2007). His \u003ci\u003eThe Literature of the Irish in Britain: Autobiography and Memoir, 1725–2001\u003c\/i\u003e (2009) was a Book of the Year in both the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eIrish Independent\u003c\/i\u003e, and appeared as a Palgrave Macmillan paperback in 2011.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eThis critical study is an authoritative guide to some of the most inventive and challenging fiction to emerge from Ireland in the last quarter century. Meticulously researched and lucidly written, it presents detailed interpretations of novels by some of the country’s most critically celebrated and internationally successful writers, including Sebastian Barry, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Patrick McCabe, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien and Colm Tóibín. Harte’s discussion of these novels addresses centrally important themes in contemporary Irish society, including the inescapability of the past, the troubling legacies of cultural and psychic traumas, the tensions created by the shedding of predetermined gender roles, the re-evaluation of traditional family values and the re-imagining of rural and urban space during a period of far-reaching social, cultural and political change.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEach novel is set in its social and compositional contexts and Harte focuses on the historical and cultural realities of which these works are both a product and a critique. Central to the book’s overall argument is the belief that fictional responses to contemporary Irish society have taken on a heightened sociological complexion in the work of the country’s leading novelists, each of whom seeks a language, a rhythm and a form to match the angular nature of a society in a state of constant self-examination.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e“Nothing is more difficult for a critic than to excavate the meanings of the present cultural moment, but that is precisely what Liam Harte has done in his sensitive analysis of recent Irish novels. The result is a generous, open-hearted book in which analytic brilliance is combined with imaginative audacity.”\u003cbr\u003e —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDeclan Kiberd,\u003c\/i\u003e University of Notre Dame\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“In his brilliantly incisive and illuminating study, Liam Harte offers a superb critical appraisal of the most stirring and provocative works of Irish fiction in recent times. Subtly alert to the pervasive themes of history, memory and belonging, and always sensitive to the language, rhythm and form of individual works, \u003ci\u003eReading the Contemporary Irish Novel\u003c\/i\u003e is an indispensable guide to the map of modern Irish fiction.” \u003ci\u003e—\u003cb\u003eStephen Regan, University of Durham\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wiley-Blackwell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47989918564581,"sku":"NP9781444336207","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781444336207.jpg?v=1761785904","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/reading-the-contemporary-irish-novel-1987-2007-isbn-9781444336207","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}