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Loading... The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up in Irelandby R. F. Foster
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. R. F. Foster is a noted historian of Ireland and in this book, he examines and dismantles the often one-sided stories of Irish history, particularly the Republican era. For someone who knows little of Irish history, however, the book can be challenging, and one would need to read more about the subjects Foster discusses in order to better appreciate his work. Also, at times the book is heavy-going with a focus on W. B. Yeats, though since Foster is a biographer of him, then the latter can be excused. ( ) no reviews | add a review
Roy Foster is one of the leaders of the iconoclastic generation of Irish historians. In this opinionated, entertaining book he examines how the Irish have written, understood, used, and misused their history over the past century. Foster argues that, over the centuries, Irish experience itself has been turned into story. He examines how and why the key moments of Ireland's past--the 1798 Rising, the Famine, the Celtic Revival, Easter 1916, the Troubles--have been worked into narratives, drawing on Ireland's powerful oral culture, on elements of myth, folklore, ghost stories and romance. The result of this constant reinterpretation is a shifting "Story of Ireland," complete with plot, drama, suspense, and revelation. Varied, surprising, and funny, the interlinked essays in The Irish Story examine the stories that people tell each other in Ireland and why. Foster provides an unsparing view of the way Irish history is manipulated for political ends and that Irish poverty and oppression is sentimentalized and packaged. He offers incisive readings of writers from Standish O'Grady to Trollope and Bowen; dissects the Irish government's commemoration of the 1798 uprising; and bitingly critiques the memoirs of Gerry Adams and Frank McCourt. Fittingly, as the acclaimed biographer of Yeats, Foster explores the poet's complex understanding of the Irish story--"the mystery play of devils and angels which we call our national history"--and warns of the dangers of turning Ireland into a historical theme park. The Irish Story will be hailed by some, attacked by others, but for all who care about Irish history and literature, it will be essential reading. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)941.5History and Geography Europe British Isles IrelandLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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