The Distance of Irish Modernism: Memory, Narrative, Representation by John Greaney (London: Bloomsbury 2022)

Abstract

John Greaney's The Distance of Irish Modernism: Memory, Narrative, Representation explores a point of tension in Irish Studies between modernist aesthetics and postcolonial historiography. Challenging the theoretical paradigms prevalent in contemporary Irish Studies, the book invites us to interrogate the meta-historical and political narratives that inform our reading of literary works by Samuel Beckett, Flann O’Brien, Elizabeth Bowen, John McGahern, and Kate O’Brien.

Keywords

• Irish modernism
• post-colonial historiography
• deconstruction
• Flann O'Brien
• The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing