Irish Childhoods: Childrens Fiction and Irish History

While much has been written about Irish cultures apparent obsession with the past and with representing childhood, few critics have explored in detail the position of childrens fiction within such discourses. This book serves to redress these imbalances, illuminating both the manner in which childrens texts engage with complex cultural discourses in contemporary Ireland and the significant contribution that childrens novels and films can make to broader debates concerning Irish identity at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries. Through close analysis of specific books and films published or produced since 1990, Irish Childhoods offers an insight into contrasting approaches to the representation of Irish history and childhood in recent childrens fiction. Each chapter interrogates the unique manner in which an author or filmmaker engages with twentieth century Irish history from a contemporary perspective, and reveals that constructions of childhood in Irish childrens fiction are often used to explore aspects of Irelands past and present. See more