Ireland's New Losers: Contemporary Irish Fiction and the Ethos of Failure
Ireland’s New Losers: Contemporary Irish Fiction and the Ethos of Failure by Michael Fontaine Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia November 2019 © Copyright by Michael Fontaine, 2019 To Mom, Dad, Danielle, and Luc ii Table of Contents Abstract v List of Abbreviations Used ivi Acknowledgments vvii Chapter One: Introduction 1 1.1. A Time of Crisis 1 1.2. What is a Loser?: Situating Loserdom 9 1.3. Losers, Irish Fiction, and the Question of Postcolonial Irishness 30 1.4. Chapter Outlines 45 Chapter Two: Liberation or Limitation: The Violence of the Celtic Tiger in Donal Ryan’s The Thing About December and Peter Cunningham’s Capital Sins 51 2.1. Introduction 51 2.2. “Caught on the Hop”: Adapting, Failing, and Failing to Adapt in Donal Ryan’s The Thing About December 61 2.3. The Threat of “Endless Possibilities”: Resisting Loss and Fighting Failure in Peter Cunningham’s Capital Sins 86 2.4. Conclusion 111 Chapter Three: Losers, Bankers, and Schemers: Figures of Failure and the Collapse of the Celtic Tiger in Paul Murray’s The Mark and the Void and Claire Kilroy’s The Devil I Know 114 3.1. Introduction 114 3.2. “More Comfortable Wrapped in Chains”: Economic Loserdom and Neoliberal Failure in The Mark and the Void 123 3.3. Powerlessness, Entrepreneurialism, and the Question of Masculine Responsibility in The Devil I Know 146 3.4. Conclusion 172 iii Chapter Four: The Shame, Regret, and Resignation of Living with the Legacies of Clerical Abuse in Roddy Doyle’s Smile and John Boyne’s A History of Loneliness 175 4.1.
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