Irish Cinema in the Twenty-First Century - by Ruth Barton (Paperback)

About the Book

This book provides an accessible, comprehensive discussion of how a small national cinema can remain relevant in the wider environment of globalisation. It includes chapters on the creative documentary, animation and the horror film, as well as Irish history on screen and the depiction of the countryside and the city.

Book Synopsis

This book provides an accessible, comprehensive discussion of how a small national cinema can remain relevant in the wider environment of globalisation. It includes chapters on the creative documentary, animation and the horror film, as well as Irish history on screen and the depiction of the countryside and the city.

From the Back Cover

Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, this book provides a detailed account of Irish cinema in the twenty-first century, suitable for students and lecturers alike. It covers new areas in Irish film production such as the creative documentary, animation and horror, and revisits key themes including the representation of history, post-Troubles cinema and Northern Ireland, rural representations and the cinema of the city.

The book is informed by theories of globalisation, the transnational, cultural trauma and spatiality. One of its key concerns is the question of gender representation, but it also looks at how the new social structures of Ireland, from the Celtic Tiger to today, are treated in the work of leading filmmakers such as Lenny Abrahamson, John Crowley, Neil Jordan, the McDonagh brothers and Jim Sheridan. Focusing on exemplary case studies, the book examines how high-profile films straddle both the local and the global industries. In addition, each chapter is preceded by the analysis of a short film.

Irish cinema in the twenty-first century is an important contribution to debates on the possibility of a national cinema in the age of globalisation. It will appeal to students and lecturers in film studies and Irish studies, as well as general readers interested in contemporary Irish cinema.

Review Quotes

'Irish Cinema in the Twenty-First Century is aimed at an academic readership and, achieving impressive comprehensiveness in a compact package, it deserves to become a standard text on an exciting, still-developing period in Irish culture. There is useful material here on horror, Northern Ireland, animation and the continuing underrepresentation of women. Her decision to begin each chapter with analysis of a short film lends the book a satisfyingly eccentric structure.'
Donald Clarke, Irish Times, August 2019

'With the relative lack of published literature on the Irish film industry and its product, Barton's book is a most welcome and authoritative discourse on the subject.'
Books Ireland

'This is a rich, insightful book. It is intellectually rigorous but also written in an accessible, clear and concise manner, and is essential for those with an interest in Irish cinema. It will likely stand alongside Barton's earlier works as a touchstone of Irish film studies.'
NewsFour

About the Author

Ruth Barton is Associate Professor in Film Studies at Trinity College Dublin. She is the author of several books, including Irish National Cinema and critical biographies of the film star Hedy Lamarr and the silent director Rex Ingram. She appears regularly on radio as a film historian and critic.