Revolutionary damnation : Badiou and Irish fiction from Joyce to Enright / Sheldon Brivic.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brivic, Sheldon, 1943- author.

Series:

Irish studies.

Irish Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Badiou, Alain--Criticism and interpretation.

Badiou, Alain.

Badiou, Alain--Influence.

English fiction--Irish authors--History and criticism.

English fiction.

English fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Modernism (Literature)--Ireland.

Modernism (Literature).

Punishment in literature.

Hell in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (321 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2017.

Summary:

In Irish fiction, the most famous example of the embrace of damnation in order to gain freedom-politically, religiously, and creatively-is Joyce's Stephen Dedalus. His "non serviam, " though, is not just the profound rebellion of one frustrated young man, but, as Brivic demonstrates in this sweeping account of twentieth-century Irish fiction, the emblematic and necessary standpoint for any artist wishing to envision something truly new. Revolutionary fervor is what allowed a country with a population lower than that of Connecticut to produce so many of the greatest writers of the twentiety century.Because Irish culture was largely dictated by the Catholic Church and its conservatism, the most ambitious Irish writers, like Joyce, Beckett, and the ten others Brivic presents here, saw the advantages of damnation and seized them, rejecting powerful norms of church, state, and culture, as well as of literary form, voice, and character, to produce some of the most radical work of the twentieth century. Brivic links the work of writers such as Flann O'Brien, Patrick McCabe, and Anne Enright to the theories of Alain Badiou. His mathematical procedure for distinguishing what is truly innovative informs the progressive political and philosophical thrust that these writers at their best carry on from Joyce and Beckett to unfold a fierce tradition that extends into the twenty-first century.

Contents:

Introduction: The radical Irish renaissance and Badiou

Joyce, Stephens damnation, and Badiou's Saint Paul

Badiou and the multiple subject of Joyce's Ulysses

Beckett's lost love

Flann O'Brien's third policeman as Lacanian [KLC1] deity

John Banville's Doctor Copernicus: lost in the stars

War 1: victims

War 2: heroes

Family: the lost [KLC2] son

Anne Enright's The gathering: the pursuit of damnation

Conclusion: The uses of damnation.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780815653578

0815653573

OCLC:

970042751