Catholic Fiction and Social Reality in Ireland, 1873-1922

by James Murphy

Overview

The late 19th and early 20th century was a key period of cultural transition in Ireland. Fiction was used in a plainly partisan or polemical fashion to advance changes in Irish society. Murphy explores the outlook of certain important social classes during this time frame through an assessment of Irish Catholic fiction. This highly original study provides a new context for understanding the works of canonical authors such as Joyce and George Moore by discussing them in light of the now almost forgotten writing from which they emerged—the several hundred novels that were written during the period, many of them by women writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313301889
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/19/1997
Series:	Contributions to the Study of World Literature , #76
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

JAMES H. MURPHY is Lecturer in English at All Hallows College, Dublin. He is editor of No Bland Facility (1991), New Beginnings in Ministry (1992) and Nos Autem: Castleknock College and Its Contribution (1996) and coeditor of Separate Spheres? Gender and Nineteenth-Century Ireland (forthcoming, 1997).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Upper-Middle-Class Fiction, 1873-1890
The Search for Respectability
Victorian Virtues
Social Conflict and Economic Reality
Versions of Catholicism
Transition, 1890-1900
Intelligentsia Fiction, 1900-1922
Catholic Ireland and Kickham's Knocknagow
Opportunities for Changing Society
Portrait of Catholic Ireland
Sources of Renewal
Guinan and Sheehan
New Irelands
Metaphors of Identity
Discourse and Defeat
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This assessment of Irish Catholic fiction explores the outlook of both the upper middle-class and the intelligentsia in late 19th century and early 20th century Ireland, a key period of transition for Irish society and one in which fiction was often used in a plainly partisan or polemical way. The author also provides analysis of canonical authors such as Joyce and George Moore by assessing them in view of the now almost forgotten writing from which they emerged. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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