The New Irish Studies

Description

The New Irish Studies demonstrates how diverse critical approaches enable a richer understanding of contemporary Irish writing and culture. The early decades of the twenty-first century in Ireland and Northern Ireland have seen an astonishing rate of change, one that reflects the common understanding of the contemporary as a moment of acceleration and flux. This collection tracks how Irish writers have represented the peace and reconciliation process in Northern Ireland, the consequences of the Celtic Tiger economic boom in the Republic, the waning influence of Catholicism, the increased authority of diverse voices, and an altered relationship with Europe. The essays acknowledge the distinctiveness of contemporary Irish literature, reflecting a sense that the local can shed light on the global, even as they reach beyond the limited tropes that have long identified Irish literature. The collection suggests routes forward for Irish Studies, and unsettles presumptions about what constitutes an Irish classic.

Paige Reynolds, Professor of English at College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts, is the author of Modernism, Drama, and the Audience for Irish Spectacle (2007) and editor of Modernist Afterlives in Irish Literature and Culture (2016). She has published widely on modernism, drama, and contemporary Irish writing and performance, and is co-editorof Irish Literature in Transition, 1980-2020 (with Eric Falci, Cambridge, 2020).