Contemporary Irish Literature

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Philosophische Fakultät), course: Social Conditions in Ireland as Portrayed in Post-Colonial Literature, language: English, abstract: "The English did many terrible things to the Irish but one of the great things they did was give us this wonderful language. We are a completely story-based society. We do love a story" -
This quotation was taken from John Banville in 2005. To be more exactly, he said this in an interview after winning the first booker prize after Roddy Doyle. While this quotation sounds very informal, it leaves the reader with the impression that Banville spoke for his fellow Irish people and not just for himself and additionally to that, he did this in a very personal way. It seems that the Irish are very close to each other and that their history bound them even more together. In my paper I'm going to do some research on Hiberno- English and it's use in Irish Literature. I will try to point out what makes Irish Literature so special and what English has to do with it. Considering that English was not their mother tongue, it will be interesting to see why the Irish adopted this language in their daily life anyway and why literature coming from Ireland is still so different from British literature. It will be my task to take a closer look at common topics in Irish books and if some aspects of Irish literature occur more often in their books as it actually seems. Furthermore I will figure out how many new words the Irish created over the decent years and why an English person won't understand these words without looking them up in a hiberno dictionary. Finding the answer to some common questions about Irish behavior and habits will be another task I have to deal with. To sum up, you could say that my paper will be about a lot of Irish oddities, especially in their written tasks. And furthermore finding the cause for those peculiarities. At the end of my paper I want to see if Banville's quote is just his opinion, or if the whole Irish society would agree with one of their greatest writers.