Silence in Modern Irish Literature

Michael McAteer, Ph.D. (1998), Queen’s University Belfast, is Associate Professor of English at Pázmány Péter University, Budapest. He has published extensively on Irish Literature, including Standish O’Grady, AE, Yeats (Irish Academic P, 2002); Yeats and European Drama (Cambridge UP, 2010).

• Michael McAteerIntroductionPart One — Psychologies of SilenceMichael McAteerSilence as Disturbance in W. B. Yeats’s “How Ferencz Renyi Kept Silent”Emilie MorinTheatres and Pathologies of Silence: Symbolism and Irish Drama from Maeterlinck to BeckettHeather IngmanSilence, Language, and Power in Elizabeth Bowen’s WorkAleksandra V. JovanovićNarrative, Silence, and Psychosis in John Banville’s The Book of EvidencePart Two — Ethics of SilenceWilla MurphyRitualized Silence and Secret Selves: The Seal of the Confessional in Nineteenth Century IrelandMark McGahonSilence, Justice, and the Différend in Joyce’s UlyssesBenjamin KeatingeSilence as Testimony in Samuel Beckett and Derek MahonAlessandra BollerWomen, Violence, and Silence: Roddy Doyle’s The Woman Who Walked Into DoorsPart Three — Places of SilenceMárta PellérdiSilence and Displacement in Ivan Turgenev and George Moore Anne Fogarty“The gentle thread of the little voice:” Silence, Sexuality, and Subjectivity in Kate O’Brien’s The Land of SpicesStephanie SchwerterBetween Silence and Re-narration: Translating Signs of Belfast’s Urban SpacePart Four — Spirits of SilenceKeith Hopper“Silent, so to speak:” Flann O’Brien and the Sense of an EndingThierry RobinVariations on Silence in Dermot Healy’s A Fool’s ErrandVirginie Roche-TiengoThe Voices of the Dead and the Silence of the Living in Brian Friel’s DramaNotes on Contributors

"The breadth and brio of Silence in Modern Irish Literature ensue mainly from the contributors’ mastery of their field, from its concentration and coherence, and from its selection of prestigious Irish authors across the many genres, geotemporal divisions, national affiliation, religious dominations, and philosophical discourses."- Ruben Moi, The Arctic University of Norway, in New Hibernia Review, Vol 21.3 (2017), pp. 155-158"In its focus on gaps and ruptures in speech, Silence in Modern Irish Literature marks a unique and important contribution to Irish Studies, one that alters approaches to reading practices themselves by shifting the focus from what is articulated, to what remains unspoken, but which nevertheless conveys meaning."- Bridget English, Études irlandaises, 42-2 (2017), pp. 154-156."Readers with an interest in modern Irish literature, modern drama, fiction and poetry; Postcolonial Studies, Gender Studies, and those interested in psychoanalytical and philosophical approaches to literature will find this a valuable and insightful collection."- Robert Finnigan, University of Sunderland, in Estudios Irlandeses, (2018)Read the full review: https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/reviews/silence-in-modern-irish-literature/“As this wide-ranging and often illuminating collection ably demonstrates, there is much to be said for attending to the role of silence in modern Irish literature. [T]he collection manages not only to reflect on the role of silence in Irish writing, but also to remedy silences in Irish literary historiography.”-Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston, in International Yeats Studies,” Vol. 2, Iss. 2, pp.69-73 (2018)