About this item
Highlights
- Revolutionary bodies provides a detailed study of the erotics and politics of the male body in Irish fiction.
- About the Author: Michael G. Cronin is Lecturer in English at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth
- 240 Pages
- Literary Criticism, Modern
Description
About the Book
An ambitious and wide-ranging study of the Irish gay novel, not merely in relation to a broader Irish political and historical narrative, but also a global one of increasing neoliberal domination legitimated by liberal social politics.Book Synopsis
Revolutionary bodies provides a detailed study of the erotics and politics of the male body in Irish fiction. Some of the authors discussed in the book include: Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan, John Broderick, Colm Tóibín, Keith Ridgway, Jamie O'Neill, Micheál Ó Conghaile and Barry McCrea. The book critically analyses the emergence of contemporary Irish gay fiction since 1993, especially its most notable genres: the coming out romance and the historical romance. It assesses the role of the novel in the evolution of Irish LGBT politics, mapping a literary and cultural space where the utopian aspirations of sexual liberation have clashed with the reformism and neo-liberal political rationality of identity politics.
Revolutionary bodies offers a unique critical intervention into our understanding of queer Irish cultures in the wake of the 2015 referendum and the Varadkar election.From the Back Cover
Revolutionary Bodies analyses how a revolutionary imagination is realised in several Irish literary works of homoerotic passion.
Homoerotic depictions of male bodies in writing by Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan and John Broderick merged with debates about aesthetics, religion, socialism, and Irish anti-colonialism. More recently, a 'post-Stonewall' politicised gay identity was given fictional expression in the work of Irish novelists - Colm Tóibín, Keith Ridgway, Jamie O'Neill, Micheál Ó Conghaile and Barry McCrea, among others. These writers challenge and subvert stigmatising ideas about 'homosexuals' and 'gay men'. Through a series of richly textured and original readings, Michael G. Cronin demonstrates that the writers depict homoerotic relations in stylistically experimental ways - generating a distinctive strain of utopian writing. This condenses most powerfully around images of the male body as desirable and vulnerable, rather than in relation to themes of gay identity and injury. The linkages between revolutionary possibility and archaic or discredited cultural traditions - such as Irish republican ballads - can be traced through the adaptation and renewal of standard motifs. Cronin shows how we here witness the formation of a new historical and social consciousness in and through the act of writing itself. This book proposes that, through this innovative investigation of Irish literary tradition, we can reinvigorate our critical understanding of the significance of 'sexual freedom' in contemporary circumstances. Drawing on Herbert Marcuse, Cronin argues that a radical re-examination of images of gay men in capitalist society may ultimately help us to reconceive the ideal of sexual liberation for all.Review Quotes
'Revolutionary Bodies is an important and timely publication that provides a strong critique of the forces that have resulted in these dark and hopeless times, whilst also seeking, like some of the works it discusses, to guide us hopefully.'
Heather Liard, Estudios Irlandeses
Patrick Mullen, Irish University Review
'Revolutionary Bodies is an important and timely publication that provides a strong critique of the forces that have resulted in these dark and hopeless times, whilst also seeking, like some of the works it discusses, to guide us hopefully.'
Heather Liard, Estudios Irlandeses
Patrick Mullen, Irish University Review
About the Author
Michael G. Cronin is Lecturer in English at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth