Irish joy : resistant affects in contemporary Irish literature and culture / Julia C. Obert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Obert, Julia C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Irish literature--History and criticism.

Irish literature.

Joy in literature.

Physical Description:

x, 180 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"This book examines joy and other related affective practices (pleasure, belonging) in contemporary Irish literature and culture. It corrects characterizations of Irish writing as pathologically melancholic by locating joyful noise in that writing. Although the texts it analyses are hardly utopian, they nonetheless treat joy as a politically potent force. This argument relies on an understanding of joy as non-therapeutic; rather, taking its cues from wake culture, Irish joy can be a buoyancy that dwells with grief and becomes a locus of survival. Expressing joy can therefore be a radically resistant practice. The book also borrows Spinoza{u2019}s definition of joy as 2emergent capacity3: as becoming capable of new things, particularly in tandem with others; as nurturing enabling ways of being together. In other words, joy can marshal collective action rather than simply being atomizingly self-indulgent. In the chapters herein, the author examines literature from both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to comment on the complex interleavings of joy and grief in contemporary Ireland, and to highlight the ways in which this affective landscape can foster community, can spur political action, and, crucially, in Ross Gay{u2019}s words, can become a 2practice of survival3 for the island{u2019}s most marginalized populations"-- JSTOR.

Contents:

Introduction : why Irish joy?

Doireann Ní Ghríofa and the joys of 2female texts3

Queering Irish joy : Rosamund Taylor and Seán Hewitt

2Troubled3 joy : on belonging in Belfast

2Killjoy joy3 : Claire Keegan, Emilie Pine, and Julie Morrissy

Epilogue : of the refrain : the joys of migrant voices.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1805966855

9781805966852

OCLC:

1547271820