Fiction and the Northern Ireland Troubles Since 1969

Book excerpt: This volume reflects an evolving situation in the North of Ireland where fiction has overtaken poetry and drama as the most significant and vital literary form. Through an analysis of representative texts, Kennedy-Andrews explores fiction from or about the North from the outbreak of the Troubles in 1969 to the present day. The bulk of the study covers recent fiction by new young writers born in the 1960s that grew up during the Troubles. To what extent can this new writing be seen to penetrate new literary terrain through versions of a pluralistic postmodern humanism? To what extent does the new writing inaugurate new mappings of identity and culture beyond the simple binaries of Protestant and Catholic, Nationalist and Unionist, thereby suggesting new possibilities for the future? To what extent does it cross other borders to present a transnational vision informed by the rest of Ireland, Britain, Europe, and America? The study concludes by considering some of the questions raised by women's writing of the Troubles. The volume contains detailed assessments of such writers as: Tom Clancy, Jack Higgins, Gerald Seymour, Terence De Vere White, Eugene McCabe, Brian Moore, Maurice Leitch, Bernard McLaverty, Glenn Patterson, Robert MacLiam Wilson, Dermot Healy, Briege Duffaud, Deirdre Madden, David Park, Colin Bateman, Lionel Shriver, Danny Morrison, Ronan Bennett, Seamus Deane, Edna O'Brien, Mary Beckett, Kate O'Riordan and Mary Costello.