This is a collection of essays by international scholars which focuses on Irish writing in English from the 18th century to the present. The essays explore the recurrent motif of exile and the subversive potential of Irish writing in political, cultural and literary terms. Case-studies of major writers such as Swift, Steele, Wilde, Yeats, Shaw, Joyce, Beckett and Heaney are set alongside discussions of relatively unexplored writing such as radical pamphleteering in the age of the French Revolution, rhetorical constructions of the Great Famine, and the contribution of women writers to Nationalistic journalism.

First published in 1992, Writing and Censorship in Britain explores the issue of censorship, from a range of cultural and literary perspectives, from the Tudor period to the 1990s. Written by some of the leading experts in the field, this collection charts the struggles for artistic expression, reveals how censorship is appropriated as a legitimate tactic in the defence of oppressed and marginalised groups, and analyses the struggles writers have employed in the face of its complex dynamics. Here variously defined, defended and deplored, censorship emerges as both an unstable and a potent concept. Through it we define ourselves: as readers, as writers and as citizens. This book will be of interest to students of literature, history and law.

This new study of the major prose and plays of Oscar Wilde argues that his dominant aesthetic category is not art but style. It is this major emphasis on style and attitude which helps mark Wilde so graphically as our contemporary. Beginning with a survey of current Wilde criticism, the book demonstrates the way his own critical essays anticipate much contemporary cultural theory and inform his own practice as a writer.

This new study of the major prose and plays of Oscar Wilde argues that his dominant aesthetic category is not art but style. It is this major emphasis on style and attitude which helps mark Wilde so graphically as our contemporary. Beginning with a survey of current Wilde criticism, the book demonstrates the way his own critical essays anticipate much contemporary cultural theory and inform his own practice as a writer.

Writing and America surveys the writing genres that have contributed to the American notions of America . Essays from scholars from both side of the Atlantic chart the range of responses to American nationhood from colonial times to the present and include dissenting responses from communities such as native American, black and feminist writers. Case studies from writers such as James Fenimore Cooper and William Carlos Williams provide a framework for discussions on topics such as colonial notions of America as the promised land, the discourses of nationhood in the republic, the sense of nationhood in American historiography, and the formation of the American Canon. Draws upon extracts from the American Bills of Rights and the Constitution as examples of different types of writing.

Writing and America surveys the writing genres that have contributed to the American notions of America . Essays from scholars from both side of the Atlantic chart the range of responses to American nationhood from colonial times to the present and include dissenting responses from communities such as native American, black and feminist writers. Case studies from writers such as James Fenimore Cooper and William Carlos Williams provide a framework for discussions on topics such as colonial notions of America as the promised land, the discourses of nationhood in the republic, the sense of nationhood in American historiography, and the formation of the American Canon. Draws upon extracts from the American Bills of Rights and the Constitution as examples of different types of writing.

This is a collection of essays by international scholars which focuses on Irish writing in English from the 18th century to the present. The essays explore the recurrent motif of exile and the subversive potential of Irish writing in political, cultural and literary terms. Case-studies of major writers such as Swift, Steele, Wilde, Yeats, Shaw, Joyce, Beckett and Heaney are set alongside discussions of relatively unexplored writing such as radical pamphleteering in the age of the French Revolution, rhetorical constructions of the Great Famine, and the contribution of women writers to Nationalistic journalism.