Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Joe Cleary -- Swift as classic -- Burke in the USA -- Tone : the great nation and the evil empire -- Imperialism and nationalism -- Irish national character 1790-1900 -- Civilians and barbarians -- Heroic styles : the tradition of an idea -- Ulysses : the exhaustion of literature and the literature of exhaustion -- Dead ends : Joyce's finest moments -- Elizabeth Bowen : sentenced to death : the house in Paris -- Elizabeth Bowen : two stories in one -- Mary Lavin : celibates -- emergency aesthetics -- Wherever Green is read -- The famous Seamus -- The end of the world.

"Seamus Deane is one of the most vital and versatile writers of our time. These sixteen essays present an unmatched survey of Irish writing, and of writing about Irish issues, that date from 1798 to the present day. Elegant, polemical and analytic, they address the political, aesthetic and cultural dimensions of some of the most notable literary and historical moments and monuments of the island's past and present. The style of Swift, the influence of Edmund Burke in the USA of the present day, the echoing debates about national character, aspects of Joyce's and of Elizabeth Bowen's relation to modernism, memoirs of Seamus Heaney, analysis of the representation of Northern Ireland in Anna Burns' fiction -- all of these constitute only a partial list of the themes included in this exhilarating book. These essays from one of Irish literature's most renowned critics have individually had a piercing impact and are collectively amplified by being gathered together here. Small World: Ireland, 1798-2016 is an indispensable collection from one of the most important voices in Irish literature and culture"-- Provided by publisher.