Böcker av Philip O'Leary

This series offer a detailed history of how prose in the Irish language developed from 1922 to 1951. Making use of contemporary newspapers, journals, personal papers, and other primary texts - novels, short stories, plays, biographies - the books recreate the intellectual and ideological climate of the spread of Irish as a modern literary language.

Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State, 1922-1939 is a continuation of Philip O'Leary's previous path-breaking book on the prose literature of the Gaelic Revival. The period following the War of Independence and Civil War saw an outpouring of book-length works in Irish from the state publishing agency An Gúm. The frequency and production of new plays, both original and translated, have never been approached since. O'Leary has investigated all of these works, as well as journalism and manuscript material, and discusses them in a lively and often humorous manner. Several writers known for their work in English, such as Liam O'Flaherty, Sean O'Faolain, and Frank O'Connor, who were either writing on occasion in Irish or engaging in debates within the Gaelic movement, emerge as important figures. With the publication of Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State, 1922-1939, we have at last an authoritative and balanced account of this major but neglected aspect of the Irish cultural renaissance. This will be an essential reference book for anyone interested in Irish literature in the twentieth century.

Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State, 1922-1939 is a continuation of Philip O'Leary's previous path-breaking book on the prose literature of the Gaelic Revival. The period following the War of Independence and Civil War saw an outpouring of book-length works in Irish from the state publishing agency An Gúm. The frequency and production of new plays, both original and translated, have never been approached since. O'Leary has investigated all of these works, as well as journalism and manuscript material, and discusses them in a lively and often humorous manner. Several writers known for their work in English, such as Liam O'Flaherty, Sean O'Faolain, and Frank O'Connor, who were either writing on occasion in Irish or engaging in debates within the Gaelic movement, emerge as important figures. With the publication of Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State, 1922-1939, we have at last an authoritative and balanced account of this major but neglected aspect of the Irish cultural renaissance. This will be an essential reference book for anyone interested in Irish literature in the twentieth century.

There was no native tradition of theatre in Irish. Thus, language revivalists were forced to develop the genre ex nihilo if there was to be a Gaelic drama that was not entirely made up of translations. The earliest efforts to do so at the beginning of the 20th century were predictably clumsy at best, and truly dreadful at worst. Yet by the 1950s, a handful of Gaelic playwrights were producing plays in Irish worthy of comparison not only with those by their Irish contemporaries working in English but also with drama being produced elsewhere in Europe as well as in North America. Obviously, Gaelic drama transitioned with surprising speed from what one early critic called 'the Ralph Royster Doyster Stage' to this new level of sophistication. This book argues that this transition was facilitated by the achievements of a handful of playwrights - Piaras Beaslai, Gearoid O Lochlainn, Leon O Broin, Seamus de Bhilmot, and Walter Macken - who between 1910 and 1950 wrote worthwhile new plays that dealt with subjects and themes of contemporary interest to Irish-speaking audiences, in the process challenging their fellow dramatists, introducing Gaelic actors to new developments and styles in world theatre, and educating Gaelic audiences to demand more from theatre in Irish than a night out or a chance to demonstrate their loyalty to the revivalist cause.This book, which discusses in some detail all of the extant plays by these five transitional playwrights, fills a gap in our knowledge of theatre in Irish (and indeed of theatre in Ireland in general), in the process providing clearer context for the appreciation of the work of their successors, playwrights who continue to produce first-rate work in Irish right to the present day.

This volume contains a survey of prose writing - novels, plays, journalism - produced in Ireland between 1922 and 1939. All quotations are given in English with original Irish in notes.