Tides of Influence: Bernard Shaw, the Irish Writer, and World Literature

Abstract

Bernard Shaw occupies an unusual position in relation to Irish literature – his bona fides as a major world literary figure are acknowledged but his importance to Ireland remains ambiguous. Shaw himself admitted his resistance to narrow views of national identity: ‘I am a tolerably good European in the Nietzschean sense, but a very bad Irishman in the Sinn Fein or Chosen People sense’. Yet because of how he was influenced by and celebrated writers from elsewhere and his successful determination to leave his imprint on and to change the direction of global culture, Shaw is a fascinating case study for the myriad manners and processes by which the Irish writer joins the currents of world literature. This essay argues that Shaw's place in world literature has been misunderstood and seeks to reconsider how both Shaw and other Irish writers have been conceptualized in this context.