1st Edition
Samuel Beckett and Recent Irish Fiction A Comparative Study
This volume considers Samuel Beckett’s fiction and drama as major aesthetic and thematic influences on the work of Irish authors Eimear McBride, Keith Ridgway, Emma Donoghue, and Kevin Barry in the post-crash period of 2009-2015. Through cross-comparisons between the aesthetics and form of Beckett’s Trilogy, Mercier and Camier, Footfalls and Not I, and those of a range of post-crash Irish novels including Beatlebone, Hawthorn and Child, Room, and A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing, this book establishes Beckett’s continuing influence on Irish fiction with particular reference to these newer authors’ treatment of scarcity, trauma, indeterminism, gender and sexuality, and confinement in the context of major societal changes and traumas in Irish society since 2009, including the imposition of austerity, collapse of faith in institutions, and the increasing recognition of LGBTQI+ and reproductive rights.
Introduction: Beckett’s Ghost and Shadow in the 21st Century
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Conclusion
Epilogue: Beckett and Ireland Since 2016
Biography
David McKinney completed his PhD in 2016 in University College Dublin. Since 2016, he has taught Irish Studies and English Literature in the Schools of Irish and English in University College Dublin, and teaches research practice, cultural theory, and creativity in the British and Irish Institute of Modern Music.
