The Cambridge Companion to Irish Modernism

Abstract

The story of Irish modernism constitutes a remarkable chapter in the movement's history. This volume serves as an incisive and accessible overview of that brilliant period in which Irish artists not only helped to create a distinctive nationalist literature but also changed the face of European and anglophone culture. This Companion surveys developments in modernist poetry, drama, fiction and the visual arts. Early innovators, such as Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Jack B. Yeats and James Joyce, as well as late modernists, including Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, Flann O'Brien, Máirtín Ó Cadhain and Francis Bacon, all appear here. Significantly, however, this volume ranges beyond such iconic figures to open up new ground with chapters on Irish women modernists, Irish American modernism, Irish language modernism and the critical reception of modernism in Ireland.