A Companion to Irish Literature

Fifty-seven original essays are presented in two volumes, with an introductory essay by editor Wright (European studies, Dalhousie U., Canada). She explains that "[t]he essays sketch a literary-historical trajectory from the Middle Ages to the present and are divided according to literary period, but they can also be grouped for genre study (for instance, to consider Irish drama from the early modern period forward to the present....), or to investigate Irish-language literature from the medieval period to the present, or to consider the cultural history of gender...," and so on. The set is intended as a "diverse and flexible framework for the study of nearly fifteen hundred years of Irish literature...," and the essays encompass a wide (but not encyclopedic) range of issues and authors, including those well established in the canon and those whose importance is newly emerging. The first volume is organized chronologically through the Victorian era. The second addresses issues of the 20th century with essays arranged according to the broad themes of transitions (Victorian, revival, modern); developments in genre and representation after 1930; debating social change after 1960; and contemporary literature (print, stage, screen). Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Julia M. Wright is Canada Research Chair in European Studies at Dalhousie University, Canada. She is the author of Blake, Nationalism, and the Politics of Alienation (2004) and Ireland, India and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Literature (2007), and the editor of Irish Literature, 1750–1900: An Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).