The History of Irish Literature
Ireland has a long history of various literature types dating back to its Gaelic language. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a number of famous writers helped establish Irish literature as one of the most important in the world. Featuring diverse styles such as poetry, plays and prose fiction, Irish writers have been awarded a number of Nobel Prizes for Literature.
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Poetry
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Irish poetry was originally written in Gaelic beginning in the sixth century. Irish writers began to write in English in the fourteenth century. Much of the content came from Ireland's Celtic and Christian roots.
Early Fiction
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Although many prose works were written during Medieval times in Ireland, the origins of Irish fiction are mostly derived from the works of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" and Oliver Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield" in the eighteenth century.
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Modern Fiction
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Perhaps the most popular Irish novelist, James Joyce, published his work in the twentieth century. Joyce adapted the French realist concept of "stream of consciousness" to produce the novels "Ulysses" and "Finnegans Wake" ("Finnegans" doesn't have a possessive apostrophe, meant to symbolize all Finnegans, not just a particular one).
Plays
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William Congreve is said to have started the tradition of Irish theater in 1601. In the late nineteenth century, plays became highly popular in Ireland, most notably the plays of Oscar Wilde. The tradition of the playwrighting continued with the works of Samuel Beckett.
Nobel Prizes
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Irish writers have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature four times. Winners include William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.
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References
Resources
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