Assembling Flann O'Brien

Flann OBrien - also known as Brian ONolan or Myles na gCopaleen - is now widely recognised as one of the foremost of Irelands modern authors. Assembling Flann OBrien explores the authors innovative and experimental work by reading him in relation to some of the 20th centurys most important theorists, including Derrida, Agamben, Freud, Lacan and iek. Assembling Flann OBrien offers a detailed study of OBriens five major novels including At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman as well as his plays, short stories, journalistic output and unpublished archival material. The book presents new theoretical perspectives on his works, exploring his compelling engagements with questions of the proper name, the archive, law, and desire, and the problems of identity, language, sexuality and censorship which acutely troubled Irelands new state. Combining a wide range of contemporary theory with a sensitivity to the cultural and political context in which the author wrote, Maebh Long opens up entirely new aspects of Flann OBriens writings, and explores the ingenious and the problematic within his oeuvre.