Changing States: Transformations in Modern Irish Writing

ISBN-13: 9780415093613 / Angielski / Miękka / 1993 / 320 str.

Robert Welch

Opis

In Changing States, Robert Welch examines the work of the major authors of modern Irish literature in the context of the transformation from Gaelic to 20th-century post-industrial culture. The force of Irish writing, uniting authors as various as Yeats, Heaney, Synge, Beckett, Joyce and Mairtin O' Cadhain, largely derives, Welch argues, from their need to respond to the challenges of this transformation. Writing against a sense of loss, their work is distinguished by certain key features: an intense awareness of the power of language; a provisionality in regard to character; a preoccupation with change and an obsession with the past and its meaning. Robert Welch draws attention to the crucial but often hidden aspects of modern Irish writing. He examines its flexibility; its scepticism; its concern with form; and ultimately the need for change, and the fear of it. He provides a unique in-depth study of individual authors in the context of cultural and linguistic developments, that should be of use to anyone interested in Irish life and literature or in language and translation.

Spis treści

Preface 1 CHANGE AND STASIS IN IRISH WRITING 2 LANGUAGE AND TRADITION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 3 GEORGE MOORE: ‘THE LAW OF CHANGE IS THE LAW OF LIFE’ 4 W.B.YEATS: ‘THE WHEEL WHERE THE WORLD IS BUTTERFLY’ 5 J.M.SYNGE: ‘TRANSFIGURED REALISM’ 6 JAMES JOYCE: ‘HE RESTS. HE HAS TRAVELLED’ 7 JOYCE CARY: ‘WONDERING AT DIFFERENCE’ 8 FRANCIS STUART: ‘WE ARE ALL ONE FLESH’ 9 SAMUEL BECKETT: ‘MATRIX OF SURDS’ 10 MÁIRTÍN Ó CADHAIN: ‘REPOSSESSING IRELAND’ 11 SEÁN Ó RÍORDÁIN: ‘RENEWING THE BASIC PATTERN’ 12 BRIAN FRIEL: ‘ISN’T THIS YOUR JOB TO TRANSLATE?’ 13 SEAMUS HEANEY: ‘LEAVING EVERYTHING’ 14 MOVEMENT AND AUTHORITY: ‘SUDDENLY YOU’RE THROUGH’. CODA: SEERS AND DANCERS

O autorze

Robert Welch is Professor of English at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. He is the author of a number of books on Irish literature; editor of The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature and a poet and translator. Muskerry, a volume of his poetry, appeared in 1991.