Edward A. Hagan is Professor of Writing at Western Connecticut State University. He is the author of High Nonsensical Words: A Study of the Works of Standish James O’Grady (Whitston, 1986). In addition to numerous journal articles, he has edited and introduced three volumes in the University College Dublin Classics of Irish History Series—To the Leaders of Our Working People by Standish James O’Grady (2002), Sun and Wind by Standish James O’Grady (2004), and The Green Republic by W.R. MacDermott (2004).

”…[The book introduces] important issues that demand the ongoing attention of anyone interested in Irish Studies.” in: Irish Literary Supplement, 2011

• Acknowledgements Introduction. The Donkeys and the Narrowbacks: Contemporary Circus AnimalsPart One: Memoirs – Defining Where We Are Now 1. Defining the Object for Struggle: Epistemology in the Age of Autobiography – Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes and Seamus Deane, Reading in the Dark2. Belfast and South Boston: Cut off from Serious Consideration – Gerry Adams, Before the Dawn and Michael Patrick MacDonald, All Souls3. The Void of Irish Identity: Nuala O’Faolain, Are You SomebodyPart Two: The Writers Strike Back: Using Irony to Subvert the Fascination of Cultural Studies 4. Tim O’Brien’s Ironic Aesthetic: Faith and the Nature of a “True” Story (co-authored with John Briggs)5. The Delusion of Cultural Studies: Colm Tóibín, The Blackwater Lightship Part Three: Serious and Not-So-Serious Farce in Contemporary Irish Fiction 6. Picaresque Farce: Nick Laird, Utterly Monkey7. Icons for the New Age: The Transvestite in Patrick McCabe’s Breakfast on Pluto and the Ballet Dancer in Colum McCann’s Dancer8. Home Isn‘t There Any More: William Trevor’s The Story of Lucy Gault and John McGahern’s By the Lake9. Transforming Nostalgia for the Victorian: Clare Boylan’s Charlotte Brontë Novel, Emma Brown10. The Irish Western Epic: Roddy Doyle Remakes John Ford – The Last RoundupPart Four: Farce in Contemporary Irish-American Fiction: Symptom of the Triviality of American Society 11. The American Wake: Alice McDermott, Child of My Heart 12. Being Irish and Being Nothing: The Abyss of Identity in Alice McDermott’s Charming Billy and Edward J. Delaney’s Fiction13. The Headache and the Aspirin: Sex as Disease and Cure in Sherman Alexie’s The Toughest Indian in the World, Colum McCann’s This Side of Brightness, and Other Contemporary Stories14. Low Seriousness in Beth Lordan’s But Come Ye Back15. The Decay of Lying? On Life Support in William Kennedy’s Roscoe and Thomas Kelly’s The Rackets16. Visiting the American Sixties on Ireland: Mary Gordon’s Pearl 17. The Necessity and Futility of Romance: Thomas Kelly’s Empire RisingPart Five: An Historian’s Need to Define the Irish Story 18. What Is the Irish Story? R.F. Foster’s The Irish StoryPostscript: The Function of Farce at the Present TimeAppendix: The Pattern of Reading in the DarkBibliography