The Irish Revival - (Irish Studies) by Joseph Valente & Marjorie Howes

About the Book

"In a series of essays by prominent Irish studies scholars, The Irish Revival: A Complex Vision deploys Complexity Theory to re-imagine the signature literary and cultural movement of modern Ireland as a unified structure of discrete projects, autonomously pursued"--

Book Synopsis

The Irish Revival has inspired a richly diverse and illuminating body of scholarship that has enlarged our understanding of the movement and its influence. The general tenor of recent scholarly work has involved an emphasis on inclusion and addition, exploring previously neglected texts, authors, regional variations, and international connections. Such work, while often excellent, tends to see various revivalist figures and projects as part of a unified endeavor, such as political resistance or self-help. In contrast, The Irish Revival: A Complex Vision seeks to reimagine the field by interpreting the Revival through the concept of "complexity," a theory recently developed in the information and biological sciences.

Taken as a whole, these essays show that the Revival's various components operated as parts of a network but without any overarching aim or authority. In retrospect, the Revival's elements can be seen as having come together under the heading of a single objective; for example, decolonization broadly construed. But this volume highlights how revivalist thinkers differed significantly on what such an aspiration might mean or lead to: ethnic authenticity, political autonomy, or greater collective prosperity and well-being. Contributors examine how relationships among the Revival's individual parts involved conflict and cooperation, difference and similarity, continuity and disruption. It is this combination of convergence without unifying purpose and divergence within a broad but flexible coherence that Valente and Howes capture by reinterpreting the Revival through complexity theory.

Review Quotes

In every case, the essays in this volume provide insightful, discrete analyses of the topics they explore. Each reflects the interpretive skill and scholarly insights that one finds in the most useful examinations of diverse aspects of Irish studies.-- "Michael Patrick Gillespie, Irish Literary Supplement"

The depth and range of essays make newly clear the Revival's complexity and diversity, tracing not only its history of innovation but also its productive counter-histories, illuminating alliances and affiliations, conflicts and divisions, radical achievements and their unfulfilled potential.-- "Margaret Kelleher, Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama, University College Dublin"

An excellent collection of essays....Highly engaging, provocative, yet lucidly argued and tremendously enjoyable.-- "Caoimhín DeBarra, Gonzaga University"

About the Author

Joseph Valente is UB Distinguished Professor of English and Disability Studies at the University of Buffalo. He has authored and coedited many books in Irish studies, including The Myth of Manliness in Irish National Culture, 1880-1922.

Marjorie Howes is associate professor at Boston College. She is the author of Yeats's Nation: Gender, Class, and Irishness, winner of the Michael J. Durkan Prize for Best Book on Language and Culture and Colonial Crossings: Figures in Irish Literary History.