Samuel Beckett and Recent Irish Fiction: A Comparative Study

This volume considers Samuel Becketts fiction and drama as major aesthetic and thematic influences on the work of Irish authors Eimear McBride, Keith Ridgway, Emma Donoghue, and Kevin Barry in the post-crash period of 20092015. Through cross-comparisons between the aesthetics and form of Becketts Trilogy, Mercier and Camier, Footfalls and Not I, and those of a range of post-crash Irish novels including Beatlebone, Hawthorn and Child, Room, and A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing, this book establishes Becketts continuing influence on Irish fiction. With particular reference to these newer authors treatment of scarcity, trauma, indeterminism, gender and sexuality, and confinement in the context of major societal changes and traumas in Irish society since 2009, topics include the imposition of austerity, collapse of faith in institutions, and the increasing recognition of LGBTQI+ and reproductive rights.