Maurice Harmon Selected Essays

by Harmon, Maurice; Brown, Barbara; Brown, Terence

• ISBN13: 9780716534006
• ISBN10: 0716534002
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-01
• Publisher: Irish Academic Press

Summary

Maurice Harmon: Selected Essays assembles published articles with unpublished talks and lectures, all of which show Harmon's lively, readable style and draw upon a lifetime of study and contemplation. They provide authoritative readings of Irish writers and their work over three centuries, beginning with discussions of the origins and development of Irish literature in the nineteenth century and of the issues and contexts that determined the formation of an indigenous literature. They conclude with assessments of Modern Irish Literature in the work of such poets as John Montague, Thomas Kinsella, Seamus Heaney, and more recent figures. Other essays concentrate on writers and topics in the post-colonial, post-revolutionary period - Patrick Kavanagh, Se���¡n O'Faol���¡in, Mary Lavin and Francis Stuart - and show the variety and the vitality of their commitment to artistic freedom. With clarity, vigour, and good sense, Harmon considers their historical and cultural milieus. Editorials from Poetry Ireland Review and the influential Advice for a Poet engage with the current generation of Irish poets and reflect his critical values. The originality of its perspective places Selected Essays in a class of its own. It complements rather than competes with other work in the field. Scholars, students, and the general reader will benefit from these accounts of significant Irish writers and their work by a distinguished specialist.����

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Terence Brown
Introduction	ix
Barbara Brown
Part I: Beginnings in Prose and Poetry	1	(58)
Cobwebs before the Wind: Aspects of the Peasantry in Anglo-Irish Literature, 1800--1916	3	(19)
The Enigma of Samuel Ferguson	22	(15)
The Rejection of Yeats: The Case of Austin Clarke and Sean O'Faolain	37	(11)
Writers on Radio: A Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Talk	48	(11)
Part II: Developments in Prose	59	(46)
Sean O'Faolain: Man of Ideas	61	(11)
Mary Lavin: Moralist of the Heart	72	(10)
The Achievement of Francis Stuart	82	(13)
Benedict Kiely's `Great Invention'	95	(10)
Part III: Developments in Poetry	105	(88)
Austin Clarke, 1896--1974: Against the Odds	107	(14)
Patrick Kavanagh: Touched by God	121	(12)
John Montague: `Restless Spirit'	133	(11)
Seamus Heaney: Vision and Revision	144	(15)
Thomas Kinsella: Poet of Many Voices	159	(19)
Irish Poets: Fresh Perspectives, Different Voices	178	(15)
Afterword: Dear Editor	193	(16)
Reply to a Poet
Editorials
Dear Editor
Appendix: Conversations with Mary Lavin	209	(7)
Select Bibliography	216	(6)
Index	222