
Reading Paul Howard
The Art of Ross O'Carroll-Kelly
Eugene O'Brien(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 22. December 2023
Book
Hardback
234 pages
978-0-367-64535-9 (ISBN)
Description
Reading Paul Howard: The Art of Ross O'Carroll Kelly offers a thorough examination of narrative devices, satirical modes, cultural context and humour in Howard's texts.
The volume argues that his academic critical neglect is due to a classic bifurcation in Irish Studies between high and popular culture, and it will use the thought of Pierre Bourdieu, Sigmund Freud, Mikhail Bakhtin and Jacques Derrida to critique this division, building a theoretical platform from which to examine the significance of Howard's work as an Irish comic and satirical writer. Addressing both the style and the substance of his work, this text locates him in a tradition of Irish satirical writing that dates back to the Gaelic bards, and it includes writers like Swift, Wilde, Flann O'Brien and Joyce. Through textual and contextual analysis, this book makes the case for Howard as a significant and original voice in Irish writing, whose fusion of the three traditional types of satire (Horatian, Juvenalian and Menippean) has created a parallel Ireland that shines a satirical light on its real counterpart. As Freud suggests, humour is a way of accessing aspects of the psyche that normative discourses cannot enunciate, and Howard, through the confessional voice of Ross, offers a fictive truth on 20 years of Irish society, a truth that is not accessed by discourse in the public sphere or by what could be termed literary or high cultural fiction.
The volume argues that his academic critical neglect is due to a classic bifurcation in Irish Studies between high and popular culture, and it will use the thought of Pierre Bourdieu, Sigmund Freud, Mikhail Bakhtin and Jacques Derrida to critique this division, building a theoretical platform from which to examine the significance of Howard's work as an Irish comic and satirical writer. Addressing both the style and the substance of his work, this text locates him in a tradition of Irish satirical writing that dates back to the Gaelic bards, and it includes writers like Swift, Wilde, Flann O'Brien and Joyce. Through textual and contextual analysis, this book makes the case for Howard as a significant and original voice in Irish writing, whose fusion of the three traditional types of satire (Horatian, Juvenalian and Menippean) has created a parallel Ireland that shines a satirical light on its real counterpart. As Freud suggests, humour is a way of accessing aspects of the psyche that normative discourses cannot enunciate, and Howard, through the confessional voice of Ross, offers a fictive truth on 20 years of Irish society, a truth that is not accessed by discourse in the public sphere or by what could be termed literary or high cultural fiction.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
510 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-367-64535-9 (9780367645359)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
05/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€67.10
Shipment within 15-20 days

E-Book
12/2023
1st Edition
Taylor & Francis
€60.99
Available for download

E-Book
12/2023
1st Edition
Taylor & Francis
€60.99
Available for download
Person
Eugene O'Brien is Professor of English Literature and Theory, and Head of the Department of English Language and Literature in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. He is the editor for the Oxford University Press Online Bibliography project in literary theory and of the Routledge Studies in Irish Literature series.
Content
Introduction: Towards an Evaluation of Paul Howard 1. Seeing Ireland Differently: The Theoretical Lens 2. Ireland's Satirical Tradition and Howard's Place in it 3. The Best Years of Our Lives - School and College 4. Married in the Celtic Tiger 5. States of Denial 6. From Prosperity to Austerity 7. Bouncing Back 8. Ross Grows Up (?) 9. A Family Man