Modern Irish Literature - Klaus Lubbers (essay date 1985)

Klaus Lubbers (essay date 1985)

SOURCE: “Irish Fiction: A Mirror for Specifics,” in Eire-Ireland, Vol. XX, No. 2, 1985, pp. 90-104.

[In the following essay, Lubbers detects similar themes in Irish fiction since James Joyce, focusing on works by such authors as Brian Moore, Frank O'Connor, and John McGahern.]

Irish fiction of the 19th century shows a considerable amount of continuity and homogeneity. Beginning with George Moore, a reorientation began that was part of the tremendous creative energy released by the cultural renaissance although only marginally inspired by it. Modern Irish fiction writers concentrated on materials almost entirely different from those that had attracted their predecessors. This new beginning is most clearly observable in the works of Moore, Stephens, and Joyce, but can also be seen in the work of Gerald O'Donovan and Brinsley Macnamara. When a critic writing in the late 1920s held Macnamara responsible...

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