Laying Out the Bones: Death and Dying in the Modern Irish Novel by Bridget English. The author holds a PhD in English from Maynooth University in Ireland.
The book explores the ways in which death shapes the structure, form, and development of the Irish novel.
“An original study of a curiously neglected topic in Irish literary studies. With a display of impressive scholarly authority, English ranges from Joyce’s Ulysses to Enright’s The Gathering by way of Beckett, Kate O’Brien and McGahern. She argues that the Irish novel is a secularizing medium that disenchants traditional Catholic conceptions of death and dying but also registers the fear and trembling that all post-religious societies feel in the face of death stripped of sacred consolations or philosophical certainties. This thoughtful, compelling study will open up a whole new set of discussions and debates in Irish Studies.”—Emer Nolan, Maynooth University
“A rich, provocative and lyrical meditation on the treatment of death and dying in the work of a wide range of modern Irish writers. English shows that novels provide a secularizing society with a form through which to confront the ultimate experience. Her prose is subtle and poised: and her insights are profound and original.”—Declan Kiberd, author of The Irish Writer and the World
Hardcover $60.00L Â Â Â 9780815635482 Â Â 2017
Paper $29.95s    9780815635369   2017
Ebook 9780815654148
More information here.