The first interdisciplinary study of violence and the modern Irish experience, Shadows of the Gunmen contributes to both Irish studies and the broader examination of violence in the modern world. Providing both examples of and an introduction to recent scholarship that addresses the representations of violence, Shadows of the Gunmen probes the connections between political/historical violence and aesthetic representations thereof.
Scholars have long understood the key roles played by violence in the making of modern Ireland. In recent years, studies on violence have become increasingly creative and sophisticated, as scholars have used new analytical lenses to confront the real challenges faced in 'writing violence.' Much of the best work in this new literature examines the complex relationships between violence and its representation. Shadows of the Gunmen provides a coherent introduction to the latest scholarship. With essays from historians, film scholars, literary critics, and philosophers, Shadows of the Gunmen is both relevant to the particular Irish experience and the broader contemporary world. Violence may not speak, but violence is represented and these depictions are continually interrogated and/or contested in public and private arenas across Ireland and abroad. This volume of essays will explore and probe the connection between political/historical violence and aesthetic representations of such violence. The first interdisciplinary study of violence and the modern Irish experience, Shadows of the Gunmen is a major contribution to both Irish studies and the broader examination of violence in the modern world.
Contents On the Necessity of Violence in the Irish Revolution by Peter Hart, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Sean O'Casey and the Dialectics of Violence by Bernice Schrank, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Sexing the Rising: Men, Sex, Violence and Easter 1916 by Danine Farquharson, Memorial University of Newfoundland
'Dash and Daring': Imperial Violence and Irish Ambiguity by Timothy G. McMahon, Marquette University, Wisconsin
Writing an Orange Dolly's Brae by Sean Farrell, Northern Illinois University
Symbolic and Hyperreal Violence in the Irish ...Troubles... Movie by Brian McIlroy, University of British Columbia
Undoing the Fanaticism of Meaning: Neil Jordan's Angel by Keith Hopper, Oxford University
Ciaran Carson: The New Urban Poetics by Elmer Kennedy-Andrews, University of Ulster, Coleraine
Memory, History, Story: Between Poetics and Ethics by Richard Kearney, Boston College
Danine Farquharson is Assistant Professor of English Literature, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Sean Farrell is Associate Professor of History, Northern Illinois University.