Irish Literature Since 1800

Irish Literature Since 1800 surveys Irish writing in English over the last two centuries, from Maria Edgeworth to Seamus Heaney. It provides students and the general reader with an up-to-date sense of the variety and vitality of Irish literature and indicates some of the ways in which it has been described and discussed. The author begins with a brief outline of Irish history, of Irish writing in Irish and Latin, and of writing in English before 1800. Later chapters consider: * Irish romanticism* Victorian Ireland* W.B. Yeats and the Irish Literary Revival* new directions in Irish writing after Joyce* the literature of contemporary Ireland, north and south, from 1960 to the present Irish writers have had to come to terms with their country's violent and difficult history, from a controversial Act of Union with Britain in 1800 to the Ulster Troubles and the prolonged and precarious peace process. Heated cultural debates and changing political, social and religious contexts are therefore also identified and discussed. There is also some discussion of the significance for Irish writing of music, painting and film, and the connections with English, American, classical and European literary culture and with stereotypes of Irishness are explored.  Norman Vance is Professor of English, University of Sussex, and Co-Director, Graduate Research Centre in the Humanities, University of Sussex.