Ireland, Revolution, and the English Modernist Imagination

This book explores how English authors of the early to mid-twentieth century responded to the nationalist revolution in neighboring Ireland in their work, illustrating how Irish affairs provided a marginal but pervasive point of reference for a wide range of canonical authors. It surveys these and other incidental writers within the framework of literary modernism, addressing the uneasy recognition of a fundamental similarity between the two countries and the proleptic engagement of Irish events to prefigure England's evolution from the Armistice to the Second World War.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 18 July 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

This captivating book delves into the profound response of English authors during the early to mid-twentieth century to the nationalist revolution sweeping across neighboring Ireland. It explores this response as a manifestation of both anxieties and aspirations within England itself. By drawing primarily from a diverse range of literary works, including novels, letters, travelogues, literary criticism, and memoirs, the book showcases how Irish affairs served as a marginal yet pervasive point of reference for a wide array of canonical authors in England. These authors include renowned figures such as Wyndham Lewis, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh, as well as lesser-known figures like Ethel Mannin, George Thomson, and T.H. White.

The book conducts a comprehensive survey of these and other incidental writers within the broader framework of literary modernism, a temporal arc that runs parallel to Ireland's revolutionary journey from rebellion to independence. Within this context, it addresses two distinct aspects of the Irish-English relationship as it manifests in the literature of the time. Firstly, it explores the uneasy recognition of a fundamental similarity between the two countries in terms of their potential for violent revolutionary instability. Secondly, it examines the proleptic engagement of Irish events to imaginatively foreshadow the potential course of England's evolution from the Armistice to the Second World War.

By tracing these effects, the book offers a timely renegotiation of the connections between Irish and English literary culture, nationalism, and political ideology. It presents a fresh perspective on the Irish sources that influenced English literary modernism, shedding light on the complex interplay between these two cultural forces. This insightful exploration of the early to mid-twentieth-century English response to Ireland's nationalist revolution provides a rich and multifaceted understanding of the literary, historical, and political dimensions of the era.

Weight: 520g
Dimension: 164 x 242 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198869160