Four Perspectives on Contemporary Anglo-Irish Fiction

As the title suggests, the work called Four Perspectives on Contemporary Irish Fiction is based on four main views, from which the contemporary Irish fiction has been observed. These perspectives have also given the titles to four main chapters - Nationalism, Religion, Modern Society and Family. Each chapter contains a theoretical part and an analysis. The theoretical parts focus on historical, cultural, political, and economic contexts. They mention some basic historical events, trace new trends and tendencies in Irish society, try to describe the current state of Ireland in the European context, and last but not least they emphasize those features that are unique for Ireland and Anglo-Irish literature. Literary terms and theories are presented as well. All in all, these theoretical parts of the chapters should provide an overall background for the following analytical parts of the work. Each analytical part is based on textual analysis of the chosen novels, which are John McGahern's Amongst Women, Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and The Snapper, Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy, Dermot Bolger's The Journey Home and Aidan Mathews's Lipstick on the Host.