Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One: Theories And Histories
1. Theories: The birth of the nation; Cultural nationalism; Novel and nation
2. Forms: The author; The text; The reader
3. Themes: Madness and dreams; Family matters; The city and country
Part Two: Contemporary Irish Fiction
4. Roddy Doyle and the New Irish Fiction: Roddy Doyle, Dermot Bolger, Patrick McCabe, Kathleen Ferguson, Mary Morrissey, Lia Mills
5. The Novel and the North: Deirdre Madden, Eoin McNamee, Colin Bateman, Glenn Pattterson,Robert MacLiam Wilson, Mary Beckett, Eugene McCabe, Kate O'Riordan
6. Borderlands: James Ryan, Joseph O Connor, Desmond Hogan, Emma Donoghue, Tom Lennon, Eilís Ní Dhuibhne, Richard Kearney, John McGahern
Interview with Roddy Doyle
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Gerry Smyth is a lecturer in cultural history at Liverpool John Moores University, teaching colonialism, post-colonialism and contemporary Irish fiction. He has published on Joyce, Arnold, Irish traditional music, and contemporary Irish cultural criticism.

Reviews

'An enormously stimulating book'
*Irish Democrat*

'A marvellous resource for anyone teaching Irish Studies. .Imbued with the spirit of Joyce, Smyth's detailed investigations of the dominant themes of the new Irish fiction are fruitful and provocative'
*Textual Practice*