National Identities and Imperfections in Contemporary Irish Literature

Luz Mar González-Arias is Senior Lecturer in English and Irish Literatures at the University of Oviedo, Spain. She is the author of two monographs: Otra Irlanda (2000), and Cuerpo, mito y teoría feminista (1999). She researches in the areas of body theory and Medical Humanities as applied to the work of contemporary Irish women poets.

• Introduction: The Imperfect as a Site of Contestation in Contemporary Ireland; Luz Mar González-Arias.- PART I: THE TIGER AND BEYOND: POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND LITERARY FISSURES.- 1. What Plenty Laid Bare! Ireland’s Harsh Confrontation with Itself: 1999-2014; Ciarán Benson.- 2. Satiric Insights into Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland: The Case of Peter Cunningham’s Capital Sins; Juan F. Elices.- 3. Understanding the Imperfect in John McGahern’s First and Last Novels; Anita Morgan.- PART II: DISRUPTIONS RELIGION, FAMILY AND MARRIAGE.- 4. Hard Times and Sibling Songs: Sibling Relations in Contemporary Irish Literature; Patricia Coughlan.- 5. Psychological Resilience in Emma Donoghue’s Room; Marisol Morales Ladrón.- 6. The Fallen Sex Revisited: Imperfect Celibacy in Mary Rose Callaghan’s A Bit of a Scandal; Auxiliadora Pérez Vides.- PART III: EX-CENTRIC BODIES AND DISQUIETING SPACES.- 7. Form, Deformity: On Pathology and Poetics in Paul Muldoon; Rui Carvalho Homem.- 8. Imperfection as a Chance: Matrixial Borderspaces in Anne Enright; Hedwig Schwall.- 9. Monstrous Mothers and Mutant Others: Bodies Out of Place in Emer Martin’s Baby Zero; Aida Rosende Pérez.- 10. Changing Places: The Imperfect City in Contemporary Irish Poetry; Lucy Collins.- PART IV: STEREOTYPES AND THE DISTORTION OF IRISHNESS.- 11. Irish Drinking Culture on the Screen; Rosa González-Casademont.- 12. Treading the Boards? Be Sure to Put on the Right Brogues! The Actor’s Search for the Perfect Irish Accent; Shane Walshe.- PART V: UNBECOMING IRISH LITERATURE: THE INSIDE GAZE.- 13. ‘Absolutely Imperfect’: In Conversation with Lia Mills; Luz Mar González-Arias.- Index.-