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.
"Eamonn Wall's daring book explores the cultural ecology of
Ireland and America through the creation of an idea of the west
that is at once gesture, criticism, and a sensory history of
passing time. If true places are never on maps, Wall's critical
cartography points the reader to new departures in the reading of
Tim Robinson, Richard Murphy, and many others. Personal,
reflective, and ambitious to engage with the wonder of literature
and place, Wall has written a rich future for the writers and
landscapes he loves." --Nicholas Allen, National University of
Ireland, Galway
"This book makes an important contribution to transatlantic
Irish studies. Wall's critical focus on ecocriticism is timely,
providing new readings of Irish writing across genres. He employs a
methodology that attends to literary cartography, postcolonial
contexts, and persuasive close readings of his authors. What
results is a book that is fresh, illuminating, and substantive, one
that elucidates a new understanding of the literary and cinematic
representations of the American West." --Susan N. Maher, Dean,
College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Duluth
"Eamonn Wall's splendid new study ranges freely through
contemporary Irish and American culture with both grace and
precision. Focused on seven writers about the Irish West, Wall
summons apt and surprising parallels and contrasts within Ireland
itself and across the water to America. If, as T. S. Eliot said,
disparate materials are always forming new wholes in the poet's
mind, then this is a poet's criticism par excellence." --George
Bornstein, University of Michigan
General
Imprint: |
University of Notre Dame Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 2011 |
First published: |
2011 |
Authors: |
Eamonn Wall
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 12mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
320 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-268-04423-7 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-268-04423-6 |
Barcode: |
9780268044237 |
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