Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Articles School of Business and Humanities 2014 ''They all Seem to have inherited the Horrible Ugliness and Sewer Filth of Sex'' : Catholic Guilt in Selected Works by John McGahern (1934-2006) Eamon Maher Institute of Technology, Tallaght,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.dit.ie/ittbus Part of the Creative Writing Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Maher, E. (2014) ''They all Seem to have inherited the Horrible Ugliness and Sewer Filth of Sex'' : Catholic Guilt in Selected Works by John McGahern (1934-2006), In E. Maher & C. Maignant (eds.) Ètudes Irlandaises, Religions in the Republic of Ireland Since 1990 (pp.101-113) Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Business and Humanities at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. "They all seem to have inherited the horrible ugliness and sewer 61th ofsex"l: Catholic Guilt in Selected Works byJohn McGahem (1934-2006) Eamon MAHER lIT Dublin Abstract John McGahern's literary canvas concentrates mainly on the north-western midlands of Ireland during the middle and latter half of the last century. Many of his characters, inAuenced by a rather puritanical brand of Catholicism, tend to view sexuality in a negative light and to see the body, especially the female body, as a source of sin.