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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. 1 THE LIGHT AND THE LENS: Streams of Damaged Consciousness in Post-Crash Irish Modernist Fiction Aran Ward Sell Submitted in satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of PhD in English Literature The University of Edinburgh 2019 2 3 I confirm that this thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature, and has i) been composed entirely by myself ii) been solely the result of my own work iii) not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification Signed: _____________________________ Date: ______________________________ 4 5 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the state of Irish literature since the 2008-9 financial crash. I contend that, whilst a supposedly mature Realism was the dominant mode of Irish writing during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years of economic boom, since the crash an identifiably Modernist literary movement has (re-)emerged. Examples of this re-emergent Modernism are Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (2013), Anakana Schofield’s Malarky (2012) and Martin John (2015), Kevin Barry’s Beatlebone (2015) and Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones (2016). I position these texts in relation to discourses of both Realism and Postmodernism, and to Irish High Modernism of the 1920s and 1930s, arguing that they represent a dynamic extension of Modernist aesthetics, not merely a static recapitulation of Modernist convention. I argue that the terms Realism, Modernism and Postmodernism (and ‘Metamodernism’, a recent category in which I include Barry’s Beatlebone) more usefully denote literary techniques with a particular aesthetic/political relationship to the world, than fixed historical periods. I analyse these texts’ use of such Modernist techniques through a theoretical lens which draws upon debates concerning literary form in twentieth-century Marxism, Gramscian theories of hegemony (notably as developed by Raymond Williams), Marxist-influenced theorisation of Ireland and Irishness, and linguistic criticism which contrasts Modernist interrogation and fracture with Realist meta-language and closure. I examine both the narratological techniques which comprise these texts’ ‘Modernism’, and also the material circumstances of their publication, which has relied heavily on a small group of Arts Council-supported small presses and literary magazines. My thesis also draws on contemporary journalism, both with regard to the economic context of Celtic Tiger and post-crash Ireland and to the reception of my primary texts. The thesis ends with a ‘coda’, which treats the immediately post-crash rejuvenation of Irish Modernism as a closed (or closing) historical moment, and speculates whether Irish Modernist aesthetics will continue to innovate and interrogate (as suggested by Anna Burns’ Milkman (2018)), or whether this ‘Movement’ is already expiring, to be replaced by a socially liberal but formally conservative return to Realist aesthetics (as suggested by Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2018)). 6 7 LAY SUMMARY Name of Aran Ward Sell UUN S0824872 student: University [email protected] email: Degree sought: PhD in English Literature No. of words in 89,009 the main text of thesis: Title of thesis: The Light and the Lens: Streams of Damaged Consciousness in Post-Crash Irish Modernist Fiction This thesis contends that the financial crash of 2008-9 provoked a major change in Irish Literature. During the boom years before the crash, known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’, more formally conservative ‘Realist’ novels dominated, often with historical settings far removed from the reality of contemporary Irish life. However in the wake of the financial crisis, a resurgence of experimental literature has occurred. This revived experimentalism harks back to the Irish ‘High Modernist’ texts of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly the works of James Joyce. However it is not a simple return to Joycean techniques or styles, but a meaningfully contemporary extension of the Modernist ethos of innovation and formal non-conformity. The novels which this thesis takes to be examples of a new Irish Modernism are Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (2013), Anakana Schofield’s Malarky (2012) and Martin John (2015), Kevin Barry’s Beatlebone (2015) and Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones (2016). I also examine the Northern Irish author Anna Burns’ novel Milkman (2018) as a more recent continuation of this new ‘Movement’. All of these writers create protagonists whose consciousnesses are in some way damaged—by the effects of traumatic abuse, by anxiety, by grief or by sexual perversion—and I argue that ‘damaged consciousness’ is a key tenet of the newly experimental Irish literature which has emerged since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger. 8 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Heartfelt thanks to my supervisor, Dr Aaron Kelly, for his guidance across the three years of this doctoral project, and during my MSc dissertation when the seeds of the current investigation were sown. I am grateful to my internal examiner, Dr Alan Gillis, and external examiner, Dr Stefanie Lehner. Their attention, guidance and support both during and since my viva examination is hugely appreciated. Thanks also to everybody at the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh who helped me, including Dr Laura Bradley for her trenchant support in securing funding, my second supervisor Professor Randall Stevenson for his wisdom and oversight, and my second-year annual review examiner Dr Paul Crosthwaite for his incisive suggestions. I would like to thank the editors, administrators and peer-reviewers of the journals HJEAS and C21: Literature for publishing papers derived from chapters 2 and 3, respectively, and the organisers of the 2017 New Work in Modernist Studies (University of Leeds) and 2018 Innovation and Experiment in Contemporary Irish Fiction (KU Leuven) conferences for allowing me to present work based on chapters 2 and 4, respectively. Thanks also to my undergraduate students, whose eagerness and application made our seminars into one of the most enjoyable aspects of my doctoral programme. The Wolfson Foundation generously sponsored this thesis. Sincere thanks to all at Wolfson for allowing me the time to think, the time to write and the time to make mistakes. Without such funding, scholarship in the Arts and Humanities will wither into the preserve of an (even more) select and independently-wealthy few. Programmes such as the Wolfson’s are to be applauded. A note of thanks, too, for the writers and critics whose words are quoted, sliced and diced herein. As well as novels, stories and academic critiques, this thesis depends heavily upon mainstream literary journalism. These are trying times for newspapers and magazines, so I salute the journalists, books desks and arts editors at all of the publications, such as The Guardian, The Irish Times, and The White Review, who have written, commissioned and published the reviews and essays which I draw upon. Justine Jordan’s 2015 Guardian 10 article ‘A new Irish literary boom’ was a particularly key formative influence upon this thesis’ direction. The family and friends who have sustained and delighted me are too many to thank by name. Special thanks to my parents, Carmel and Roger, and to Ann and Paddy O’Brien, for their stalwart support and encouragement. My PhD colleagues have been staunch companions and a vital safety net throughout; shouts-out to all, especially my desk buddy Judith Drake. Thomas Sanborn and Morgan Wegner showed up just when I needed them, as they always do—Morgan even delayed a flight home to help me stagger across the finish line. But thanks most of all to Ian Anderson, Katie Hawthorne and Róisín O’Brien. To Ian and Katie, my wolfpack, for peer support beyond measure. Without you this thesis would be less thorough, less polished, full of even more holes than it already is, and almost certainly not yet finished. I’m so grateful for your help and your friendship, and I can’t wait to read your own finished theses, which will glow and reverberate wonderfully. And to Róisín, all of my love and gratitude, always. You have been an anchor, a lodestar and an inspiration from start to finish. Thank you. 11 CONTENTS 1: Introduction: Why Ask the Left about Literature?................................................................ 15 2: The Tiger and the Crash: Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing ........................... 61 3: It is Never Defined: Anakana Schofield’s Malarky and Martin John .................................. 105 4: This is a Movement: Kevin Barry’s Beatlebone ................................................................... 137 5: Conclusion: Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones and the stream of post-consciousness