Bearing Witness: Essays on Anglo-Irish Literature: Essays on Anglo-Irish Literature

These humane, engaged essays stand as a passionate encounter with the literary matters of Ireland. Augustine Martin's (1935-1995) reputation as one of Ireland's leading scholars of his country's literature has grown tremendously over the more than three decades he has been writing and lecturing. The twenty-one essays selected for this volume are a lucid and eloquent testimony to his gifts as a communicator. They treat a wide range of modern Irish writers, from the major figures - Yeats, Joyce, Synge - to such contemporary figures as Mary Lavin, Brendan Kennelly, and Eavan Boland, to those writers whose careers Martin is able to revitalize with his informed critical assessments - Austin Clarke, Francis Stuart, Mary O'Brien. Throughout, his critic's obligation to the writer is balanced with a respect for the reader.