This book argues that populism has been a shaping force in Irish literary culture. Populist moments and movements have compelled authors to reject established forms and invent new ones. Sometimes, as in the middle period of W.B. Yeats's work, populism forces a writer into impossible stances,spurring ever greater rhetorical and poetic creativity. At other times, as in the critiques of Anna Parnell or Myles na gCopaleen, authors penetrate the rhetoric fog of populist discourse and expose the hollowness of its claims. Yet in both politics and culture, populism can be a generative force.Daniel O'Connell, and later the Land League, utilized populist discourse to advance Irish political freedom and expand rights. The most powerful works of Lady Gregory and Ernie O'Malley are their portraits of The People that borrows from the populist vocabulary. While we must be critical of populistdiscourse, we dismiss it at our loss. This study synthesizes existing scholarship on populism to explore how Irish texts have evoked "The People"--a crucial rhetorical move for populist discourse--and how some writers have critiqued, adopted, and adapted the languages of Irish populisms.

Irish Culture and “The People”: Populism and its Discontents

Literature & Fiction

O'Malley, Seamus

Literary

Oxford University Press

Guided by Ezra Pound's dictum --"Make it new"--a generation of writers set out to create fiction and poetry that was unlike anything that came before it. However, as Seamus O'Malley shows, historical narrative was a key site for modernist experimentation. Taking three of literary modernism's major figures--Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, and Rebecca West--Making History New demonstrates how the movement's literature not only engaged with history but also transformed traditional approaches to its telling in unique ways. Informed by Paul Ricoeur's belief that narrative is necessary to comprehend historical processes, the study closely examines four major modernist historical novels. Conrad's Nostromo interrogates the very term "history," as it relates the political tumult of a fictitious Latin American country; while Ford's The Good Soldier mirrors the cyclical nature of historiography with a protagonist who returns repeatedly to intense periods of his own past to better comprehend them. Two epochal World War I novels-The Return of the Soldier and Parade's End-depict shell-shocked veterans that illustrate the paradox of an accurate historical rendering achieved through the process of amnesia. These novels, in O'Malley's view, lead to the high point of what he terms "modernist historiography": Rebecca West's innovative 1941 travelogue Black Lamb and Grey Falcon and its preoccupation with "history's impossibility." The monograph concludes with a brief consideration of how historians since World War II have adopted some of the approaches to narrative inaugurated by literary modernists while wrestling with how to relate unthinkable atrocities such as genocide. Ultimately, Making History New foregrounds narrative's essential role as a bridge between fiction and history, as it explores the process by which collective human experience becomes historical narrative.

Making History New: Modernism and Historical Narrative

British & Irish

The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford

Product Description Taking account of Ford Madox Ford’s entire literary output, this companion brings together prominent Ford specialists to offer an overview of existing Ford scholarship and to suggest new directions in Ford studies. The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford is split into five parts, exploring the scholarly foundations of Ford Madox Ford studies, Ford's literary identity, Ford and place, specific case studies and themes and critical approaches. Within these five parts, the contributors cover areas relevant to Ford’s fiction, nonfiction and poetry, including reception history, life-writing, literary histories, gender and comedy. The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in Ford Studies, in modernism, and in the literary world that Ford helped shape in the early years of the twentieth century. About the Author Sara Haslam is Senior Lecturer in English at The Open University, UK.Laura Colombino is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Genova, Italy.Seamus O’Malley is Assistant Professor of English at Yeshiva University, US.

Haslam, Sara

Colombino, Laura

Routledge

Taking account of Ford Madox Ford’s entire literary output, this companion brings together prominent Ford specialists to offer an overview of existing Ford scholarship and to suggest new directions in Ford studies. The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford is split into five parts, exploring the scholarly foundations of Ford Madox Ford studies, Ford's literary identity, Ford and place, specific case studies and themes and critical approaches. Within these five parts, the contributors cover areas relevant to Ford’s fiction, nonfiction and poetry, including reception history, life-writing, literary histories, gender and comedy. The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in Ford Studies, in modernism, and in the literary world that Ford helped shape in the early years of the twentieth century.

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Books by O'Malley, Seamus

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O'Malley, Seamus. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Irish Culture and “The People”: Populism and its Discontents

Making History New: Modernism and Historical Narrative

The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford

The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford