Irish literature
Joyce's homeland writing
Irish literature encompasses writing produced in Ireland or by Irish authors, spanning works in both English and Irish Gaelic.
The tradition includes ancient Celtic mythology, medieval poetry, and a remarkable flowering of drama and fiction from the 19th century onward.
Writers like Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, and Wilde gave Irish literature outsized influence on world letters.
The term often evokes themes of colonialism, identity, language politics, and emigration that run through much of the canon.
- UlyssesGreek hero, Latinized
- DublinersIreland's capital inhabitants
- novelNew and unusual
- short storyBrief prose fiction
Samuel Beckett · Oscar Wilde · Bram Stoker · Sally Rooney · prose · stream of consciousness · characterization · plot
Ancient Irish deity tribe
- Tír na nÓgIrish eternal youth realm
- OisínCeltic legendary poet-warrior
- MorriganIrish goddess of fate
- BrigidIrish holy woman
Fionn mac Cumhaill · Fenian Cycle · Táin Bó Cúailnge · Druids · Deirdre · Otherworld · heroic tales
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- Waiting for GodotAbsurdist drama about fruitless expectation
- tragedyDisastrous or sorrowful event
- comedyWork meant to amuse
satire · dialogue · monologue · stage · performance · dramaturgy · script · theatrical revival
Culture passed by speech
- folktalesTraditional oral narratives
- leprechaunMischievous Irish sprite
- bansheeDeath-foretelling Irish spirit
- selkieShapeshifting seal of legend
changeling · fairy fort · Samhain · Blarney Stone · superstition · storytelling · wise woman · folk beliefs
Irish Nobel poet
- verseMetered poetic passage
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
- limerickComedic five-line poem
Seamus Heaney · sonnet · elegy · ballad · ode · lyric · meter · imagery
- stream of consciousnessNarrative mimicking uninterrupted thought
- experimentalTesting new methods
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
- UlyssesGreek hero, Latinized
Samuel Beckett · Finnegans Wake · absurdism · fragmentation · innovation · interior monologue · censorship · banned books
James Joyce
Samuel Beckett · Oscar Wilde · Bram Stoker · Sally Rooney · short story · prose · stream of consciousness · characterization · plot · realism
Tuatha Dé Danann
Ancient Irish deity tribe
- Tír na nÓgIrish eternal youth realm
- OisínCeltic legendary poet-warrior
- MorriganIrish goddess of fate
Fionn mac Cumhaill · Brigid · Fenian Cycle · Táin Bó Cúailnge · Druids · Deirdre · Otherworld · heroic tales
Beckett
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- Waiting for GodotAbsurdist drama about fruitless expectation
- tragedyDisastrous or sorrowful event
comedy · satire · dialogue · monologue · stage · performance · dramaturgy · script · theatrical revival
oral tradition
Culture passed by speech
- folktalesTraditional oral narratives
- leprechaunMischievous Irish sprite
- bansheeDeath-foretelling Irish spirit
selkie · changeling · fairy fort · Samhain · Blarney Stone · superstition · storytelling · wise woman · folk beliefs · rural traditions
Yeats
Irish Nobel poet
Seamus Heaney · limerick · sonnet · elegy · ballad · ode · lyric · meter · imagery · Nobel Prize
James Joyce
- stream of consciousnessNarrative mimicking uninterrupted thought
- experimentalTesting new methods
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
Samuel Beckett · Ulysses · Finnegans Wake · absurdism · fragmentation · innovation · interior monologue · censorship · banned books
- Celtic RevivalW.B. Yeats, Celtic art, Celtic music, Celtic mythology, Celtic knotwork
- Irish cultureshamrock, shamrocks, leprechaun, leprechauns, Celtic cross
- world literatureFrench novels, Russian novels, Japanese fiction, translated works, British novels
- Irish-AmericanSouthie, South Boston, Ellis Island, potato famine, immigration wave
- book genresfiction, novels, nonfiction, mystery, thriller
- English LiteratureShakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, Bronte, Chaucer