Singleton, John (2017) ‘The Ireland that We Dreamed of’: Rejecting Convention in John McGahern’s The Dark. NPPSH Reflections, 1. pp. 16-21. ISSN 2565-6031

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Abstract

John McGahern’s second novel The Dark , banned upon publication in 1965, is remembered for shining a light on the darkest aspects of Irish Life: a confessional society that masked institutionalised physical, mental and sexual abuse, the full ex tent of which would be exposed in the Ryan Report (2009). Focusing on the depiction of individual moments of violence, however, encourages us to view the protagonist as a powerless victim and to disregard the novel’s central triumph: the rejection of socia l expectation and the realisation of a ‘real authority’, independent of family, faith and fatherland.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Ireland; church; state; ideology; oppression; resistance; literature; literary criticism; literary analysis; NPPSH;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts & Humanities > Research Institutes > An Foras Feasa
Item ID:	8301
Depositing User:	NPPSH Editor
Date Deposited:	12 Jun 2017 08:27
Journal or Publication Title:	NPPSH Reflections
Publisher:	Maynooth Academic Publishing
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Organisation
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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