Anthologisation and Irish Short Fiction
Magnitudes of Telling
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:27th Mar '25
£145.00
Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.
This original new study explores the recent flowering of short fiction in Ireland. More specifically, it discusses the cultural, material, and ideological usages of the short form in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, engaging with the forces that have helped to shape the production, dissemination, and reception of short stories over the last few decades in Ireland. The book is generically fluid and reads short fiction in its many guises, from short-shorts to long stories, and from standalone texts included in periodicals and online forums, to stories that were published in volumes, miscellanies, and edited collections.
The book focuses especially upon anthologies and the act of anthologisation. The creation of an anthology is never a simple value-free act, since those associated with the curation of anthologies are always obliged to make decisions that are variously material, economic, formal, ideological, and aesthetic. Some of these decisions are founded upon personal preferences, others are grounded in subjective prejudices and biases; however, all have consequences for the ways that a literary culture is created, marketed, taught, and read. This new book explores this subject, and looks at the consequences for ways that we think about Irish short fiction in the contemporary moment.
"Paul Delaney’s revelatory study shows just how decisive the anthology has been in the fortunes of Irish short fiction and the reputations of its writers. The range of examples is enormous, each one constructing or contesting a view of what ‘the Irish short story’ ought to be. He navigates these complexities with ease. The result if a hugely enjoyable account of publishing history and a nuanced reading of individual authors. Delaney’s recognition that the short story is inherently a shape-shifting text, subject to re-writing with each reprinting, raises fundamental questions for all those studying the genre."
--Ailsa Cox, Professor Emerita in Short Fiction
"This beautifully written study offers a comprehensive analysis of the impact of anthologies on the production, dissemination and reception of the short story in Ireland. Paul Delaney is profoundly knowledgeable about contemporary Irish short fiction and draws on a vast body of anthologies, collections and stories to examine editorial practices, authorial revisions and issues of canon formation. Tracing the changing guises of stories across different publication platforms, he questions conventional conceptions of ‘the’ Irish short story and highlights the remarkable portability and plasticity of the short form. With his sustained attention to the material contexts of the short story, Delaney presents an innovative approach to the genre which is sure to inspire short fiction research in other traditions as well."
--Elke D'hoker, Professor of English Literature, Director of the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies and the Centre for Literature and Education
"This is an immensely valuable and much needed study. It illuminates the practice and theory of Irish short fiction, in its diverse guises and compelling range of subject. In focusing not only on contemporary short stories but also on the ways we – readers and critics – talk about contemporary short fiction, Delaney provides many rich and suggestive insights that guide us back to these ‘magnitudes of telling’ and to the many platforms – anthologies and writers’ collections, magazines and periodicals – where short fiction continues to prosper."
--Margaret Kelleher, Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama, University College Dublin
ISBN: 9781032033969
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 570g
214 pages