A History of the Irish Novel

Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information A HISTORY OF THE IRISH NOVEL Derek Hand’s A History of the Irish Novel is a major work of criticism on some of the greatest and most globally recognisable writers of the novel form. Writers such as Laurence Sterne, James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett and John McGahern have demonstrated the extraordinary intellectual range, thematic complexity and stylistic innovation of Irish fiction. Derek Hand provides a remarkably detailed picture of the Irish novel’s emergence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He shows the story of the genre is the story of Ireland’s troubled relationship to modernisation. The first critical synthesis of the Irish novel from the seventeenth century to the present day, this is a major book for the field, and the first to thematically, theoretically and contextually chart its development. It is an essential, entertaining and highly original guide to the history of the Irish novel. DEREK HAND Drumcondra. is a lecturer in English at St Patrick’s College, © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information A HISTORY OF THE IRISH NOVEL DEREK HAND © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, ny 10013-2473, usa Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107674271 © Derek Hand 2011 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2011 First paperback edition 2014 Printed in the United States of America A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Hand, Derek. A history of the Irish novel / by Derek Hand. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-85540-2 1. English fiction – Irish authors – History and criticism. 2. Literature and society – Ireland – History. 3. Literature and history – Ireland – History. 4. National characteristics, Irish, in literature. 5. Ireland – in literature. I. Title. pr8797.h36 2011 823.0090’9415–dc22 2010032792 isbn 978-0-521-85540-2 Hardback isbn 978-1-107-67427-1 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information For Paula © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information Contents page ix Acknowledgements Introduction: A history of the Irish novel, 1665–2010 Interchapter 1: Chapter 1: Interchapter 2: Chapter 2: Interchapter 3: Chapter 3: Interchapter 4: Chapter 4: Interchapter 5: Chapter 5: 1 Virtue Rewarded; or, the Irish Princess: burgeoning silence and the new novel form in Ireland 14 Beginnings and endings: writing from the margins, 1665–1800 24 Beyond history: Maria Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent 60 Speak not my name; or, the wings of Minerva: Irish fiction, 1800–91 70 Edith Somerville and Martin Ross’s The Real Charlotte: the blooming menagerie 106 Living in a time of epic: the Irish novel and Literary Revival and revolution, 1891–1922 114 James Joyce’s Ulysses: choosing life 144 Irish independence and the bureaucratic imagination, 1922–39 154 Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September and the art of betrayal 182 Enervated island – isolated Ireland? 1940–60 189 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information viii Contents Interchapter 6: John Banville’s Doctor Copernicus: a revolution in the head 218 Chapter 6: The struggle of making it new, 1960–79 225 Interchapter 7: Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark and the rebel act of interpretation 247 Chapter 7: Brave new worlds: Celtic Tigers and moving statues, 1979 to the present day 254 Interchapter 8: John McGahern’s That They May Face the Rising Sun: saying the very last things 284 Conclusion: The future of the Irish novel in the global literary marketplace 290 Notes Bibliography Index © in this web service Cambridge University Press 293 320 335 www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information Acknowledgements I would like to thank my editor Ray Ryan of the Cambridge University Press for encouraging me to take up this project: a casual conversation many years ago has led to this book coming into being. He has been a great help throughout, and his patience and understanding have been very much appreciated. Maartje Scheltens has also been of great assistance as the project came to a conclusion. I would like to thank the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences for a Research Fellowship Award 2008–2009, St Patrick’s College for a Research Fellowship 2005–2006, and An Foras Feasa for research leave in 2008. I would also like to thank the staff of the National Library of Ireland, Trinity College Library, and St Patrick’s College Library. Declan Kiberd – as a teacher and friend – is one of the reasons that this book exists at all. I thank him for many years of encouragement, as I thank P. J. Mathews for being a great friend and a true inspiration. I would also like to thank Noreen Doody and Anne Fogarty who read the first draft of the manuscript. They offered many insights but all errors are now my own. I would like to acknowledge my departmental colleagues in St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra: Brenna Clarke, Tom Halpin, Celia Keenan, Eugene McNulty, Pat Burke and Julie Anne Stevens. I would also like to thank for many years of friendship and sustaining conversation on a variety of topics Tony Roche. Other friends and colleagues who have been a source of ideas and debate are Frank McGuinness, Brian Donnelly, Eamon Maher, Alan Roughly, Eibhear Walshe, Pauric Travers, Malcolm Sen, Katherine O’Callaghan, Stanley Van Der Ziel, Dermot O’Brien, John Kenny, Keith Hopper, Eugene O’Brien, John McDonagh, Laura Izarra, Caroline Walsh, Hedwig Schwall, Elke d’Hoker, Enrico Terrinoni, Jefferson Holdridge, Wanda Balzano, Ian Campbell Ross, Edwina McKeon, Sharon Murphy, Jim Shanahan, Margaret Kelleher and the late John Devitt with whom I shared many a canter. I would also like to thank the numerous members of the committees I have the pleasure to have served on, the Literatures in ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67427-1 - A History of Irish Novel Derek Hand Frontmatter More information x Acknowledgements English Committee of the Royal Irish Academy and the European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies (EFACIS). Some of the ideas here have been rehearsed at symposia and I would like to thank Patrick O’Donnell and Jim Rogers in St Paul, Minneapolis, Hedda Freiberg in Sweden, Rui Carvalho Homem in Portugal, and Neil Murphy in Singapore. Over the years I have had the opportunity to discuss writing with a number of contemporary Irish writers: the late John McGahern, John Banville, Joseph O’Connor, Claire Keegan and Éilís Ni Dhuibhne, and I would like to acknowledge their insights into the form of the novel in Ireland. My family of course are the real sustaining energy in a project such as this and I would like to thank my mother Mary and brother Brian, Mick and Bridie Hastings, Noreen and Paul, Alan and Caroline, Emma, Alex, Jared and Luke, Mary, Peter, Grace and Conor and all the Mainers, and Ruth and Michael. Of course, this book would not have been possible without the constant support and belief of my wife Paula and last, but not least, Sophie Dang who reminds me every day how extraordinary the world actually is. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org