Getting to Good Friday: Literature and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland

Getting to Good Friday is a book that combines literary analysis and narrative history to explore the changes in thinking and talking about Northern Ireland's divided society that led to the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. It demonstrates how authors were motivated by a desire to comment on and intervene in political situations, and how literature can enrich readers' historical understanding.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 02 February 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

In an accessible exploration of the shifts in thinking and discourse that culminated in the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the text seamlessly weaves literary analysis and narrative history. Drawing upon decades of extensive reading, research, and teaching in Northern Irish literature, as well as engaging in conversations and correspondences with Northern Irish writers, Marilyn Richtarik delves into the literary reactions and contributions to the peace process during the fifteen years preceding the Agreement and in the immediate post-conflict era. The progress achieved during this period hinged on the ability of negotiators to revise the terms used to discuss the conflict. As poet Michael Longley astutely observed in 1998, the Good Friday Agreement relied on an almost poetic precision and suggestiveness to convey its intricate message.

Interpreting a selection of literary works by Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Deirdre Madden, Seamus Deane, Bernard MacLaverty, Colum McCann, and David Park within a comprehensive historical context, Richtarik showcases the profound motivation of authors to comment on and intervene in the unfolding political situations. The text suggests that literature, as literature, possesses formal properties that can enhance readers' historical understanding. Through Richtarik's engaging narrative, creative writing emerges as both the medium and a metaphor for the peace process itself.

Weight: 544g
Dimension: 241 x 160 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192886408