Flann O’Brien and the European Avant-Garde, 1934–45

Tobias W. Harris is Associate Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.

• Introduction Chapter 1: O’Nolan’s European milieu Chapter 2: Blather, Razzle and Dada Chapter 3: Fictions: At Swim-Two-Birds and Borges Chapter 4: New dimensions: Kafka, The Third Policeman and An Béal Bocht Chapter 5: Epic theatre: Thirst, Faustus Kelly and The Insect Play Chapter 6: Occupation: Cruiskeen Lawn, form and the avant-garde Bibliography

Harris has written a book that both counts as a celebration of O’Nolan’s work and argues for his position in a canon of anti-authoritarian aesthetics and politics. Pointing to a conceptual sophistication behind the humour, the book draws on wide reading and precise archival research to depict O’Nolan convincingly as a successful writer, not a fable of thwarted ambitions.