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The finale to Penguin's tribute to the Irish: Irish Literature Today!

A leading writer of the Theater of the Absurd in France, Samuel Beckett, who worked for James Joyce in Paris, challenged the boundaries of drama by abandoning a conventional development of plot, action and character, creating tragicomedies that were both nihilistic and funny. His play "Waiting for Godot" did for drama what Joyce's Ulysses did for the novel. Beckett went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

James Joyce's short story collection Dubliners inspired a host of gifted Irish writers to explore this form. Mary Lavin, James Plunkett, Edna O'Brien, and Frank O'Connor all made significant contributions to the Short Story genre.

Mounting social unrest in Northern Ireland provoked Brendan Behan to write his essential 20th century play, "The Quare Fellow," tackling, in Gaelic no less, capital punishment. A little less provocative, but no less effective, Seamus Heaney's poems of Northern Irish rural life evoke Irish history and mythology garnered him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.

The plays of Brian Friel and Martin McDonagh (whose latest play can be seen on Broadway this spring with Billy Crudup and Jeff Goldblum) continue to enjoy commercial and critical success on both sides of the Atlantic. Contemporary Irish novelists often harken back to legends and events of the past creating works rife with memorable characters and settings. Roddy Doyle, Maeve Binchy, Nuala O'Faolain, William Trevor, Brendan O'Carroll, Frank McCourt, Malachy McCourt, Colm Toibin repeatedly pick up awards, critical praise, and enviable positions on bestseller lists for their novels.

Perhaps there is a mythic storytelling power that belongs only to the Irish...some sort of spell a Celtic conjuror cast thousands of years ago.

Posted by: Clinton Wilson, Online Customer Retention Manager

St. Patrick's Day, History of Ireland Penguin Bloggers, Clinton Wilson