Irish Modernisms

Focusing on previously unexplored theoretical gaps limitations and fresh avenues of inquiry within the canon and scholarship of Irish modernism this book interrogates marginalised and neglected figures and genres to develop a more attentive and fluid theoretical space in which to reflect upon the field. Probing Irish modernism's responsiveness to contemporary theory beyond postcolonial and Irish studies this book uses diverse paradigms including weak theory biopolitics posthumanism and the nonhuman turn to rethink Irish modernism's organising themes: nationalism martyrdom war state violence prostitution temporality death mourning. At the same time cutting-edge work from queer theory and gender studies draws urgent attention to the too-often marginalised importance of women's writing and queer expression to the Irish <i>avant-garde</i>. <br/><br/>Foregrounding Irish modernist interfaces between visual literary musical dramatic cinematic epistolary and journalistic media this book focuses on writers artists and cultural figures such as Hannah Berman Eva Gore-Booth Esther Roper Forrest Reid Mary Davenport O'Neill Sheila Wingfield Ethel Colburn Mayne Edward Martyn Jane Seosamh Ó Torna and Máirtín Ó Cadhain. At the same time this volume asks how consideration of Irish modernism through the diverse genres and movements of these neglected and liminal figures compels us to reconsider the position of the major (Irish) modernists - such as Synge Yeats Shaw Joyce O'Nolan Beckett MacGreevy and Bowen - in this redrawn canon.