Overview

Hailed in the Irish Times as a 'great Irish novelist', Neil Jordan is, in the words of Fintan O'Toole, 'a peculiarly emblematic figure of cultural change'. Yet, extraordinarily, such critical acclaim has come about without detailed scholarly engagement with Jordan's most sustained interrogation of Ireland and notions of Irishness: his fiction. Neil Jordan: Works for the Page fills this gap in contemporary Irish literary criticism, and, while Jordan's filmmaking is often discussed, the focus here is on his published work: his early volume of short fiction, his many novels, and several of his uncollected stories. The result is a work which will enhance understanding of contemporary Irish cultural studies while also suggesting future directions for the criticism of other artists operating in multiple creative disciplines. The significance of this book lies in its discussion of what kind of artist Neil Jordan really is, which is not necessarily the kind of artist that Irish Studies currently perceives him to be. He is neither just an Oscar-winning filmmaker nor a European novelist of the first rank, he is both, and the comprehensive introduction to the literary author provided by Neil Jordan: Works for the Page has been carefully structured to appeal to those familiar with only the filmmaker. This engaging study examines how, in a forty-year writing career, Jordan has engaged with and expanded upon many core concerns of Irish literature: the struggle to define oneself against the weight of history, both political and artistic; the quest to understand the nation's violent efforts to transcend and process its colonial past.

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9781782054955

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Reviews

This book makes a compelling case for why Neil Jordan's fiction merits serious academic attention because of its originality, quality and the extent to which it informs and nurtures many of his preoccupation as a filmmaker. In addition, the study highlights the intrinsic gifts of Jordan as a practitioner of the fiction genre. It draws on numerous interviews in which he repeatedly refers to how important the craft of fiction writing has been in his subsequent career in film.--Eamon Maher, Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies, Technological University Dubl This is a significant study of a seriously under-theorised and overlooked fiction writer. In short, it achieves in its intention of beginning to reconsider Neil Jordan's fictional output, not as some leisurely pastime for a hugely successful movie director, but as an essential, if not primary, element in his artistic development. --Derek Hand, Dublin City University

Author Information

Val Nolan is a lecturer in the Department of English and Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University, UK

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