The Modern Irish Short Story

3 units

This course will examine critically the achievements of the modern short story in Ireland. The tradition of storytelling goes deep in Irish culture, encompassing the oral bardic traditions derived from the old Gaelic order and its love of the lore of place, the connections between the generations, and tales of deeds heroic and shameful. Nonetheless, the modern short story has also flourished in Ireland, the product of a critical, scientific age, as Frank O'Connor noted in his pioneering study, The Lonely Voice. Anne Enright has written of the lingering unease about how Irish writers negotiate ideas about 'Ireland', thereby underscoring the centrality of identity and community in this body of writing. We will also investigate themes of power, choice, connection, transformation, and epiphany as they pertain to these stories as read in their modern Irish context. Attention will also be given to the formal qualities of the stories, some tragic and some comic, including Frank O'Connor's notion of organic form, something that springs from a single detail and embraces past, present, and future. Writers to be studied include: George Moore, James Joyce, Sean O'Faoláin, Frank O'Connor, Elizabeth Bowen, Liam O'Flaherty, Edna O'Brien, Mary Lavin, John McGahern, William Trevor, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Colm Tóibín, Colin Barrett, and Claire Keegan.