Abstract
This essay examines two novels by Anthony Cronin in order to argue that a tendency towards either proliferation or subtraction determines late Irish modernist aesthetics. Having established that the repetition of material in Cronin's texts indicates a tendency towards subtraction, the essay positions Brian O'Nolan's work within a modernist tradition that favours proliferation, and concludes by arguing that the role irony plays in successful proliferation is problematic for a socialist literary aesthetic.
Highlights
In Declan Kiberd’s take on At Swim-Two-Birds, Brian O’Nolan’s narrative gymnastics are the creative expression of a man ‘less anxious to say something new than to find a self that is capable of saying anything at all.’[1]
This essay examines two novels by Anthony Cronin in order to argue that a tendency towards either proliferation or subtraction determines late Irish-modernist aesthetics
Having established that the repetition of material in Cronin’s texts indicates a tendency towards subtraction, the essay positions Brian O’Nolan’s work within a modernist tradition that favours proliferation and concludes by arguing that the role irony plays in proliferation may be problematic for a socialist literary aesthetic
Summary
In Declan Kiberd’s take on At Swim-Two-Birds, Brian O’Nolan’s narrative gymnastics are the creative expression of a man ‘less anxious to say something new than to find a self that is capable of saying anything at all.’[1]. Rodney Sharkey, ‘A Tale of Two Tales: Irony, Identity and the Fictions of Anthony Cronin and Brian O'Nolan,’ The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 5, no.
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