Aesthetics of Excess in Northern Irish Troubles Fiction

This book examines a shared aesthetics of excess, and the reasons for its presence, in the works of five writers whose novels about the Troubles in Northern Ireland have been published since 1994: Seamus Deane (Reading in the Dark); Eoin McNamee (Resurrection Man and The Ultras); Ann Burns (No Bones, Little Constructions, and Milkman); David Keenan (For the Good Times); and Michael Hughes (Country).. The novels under discussion express and reflect psychological trauma, present small-slice, phenomenological history to challenge and augment official records, confront the violent realities of war, and illustrate sociological aspects of identity tied to gender, class, politics, religion, and place. Overall, the book highlights how excessive elements of style and content work together to create fiction that captures the complex communal and personal emotional tolls of living through the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Kate Zemetis Zimmerbaum currently teaches English literature at the secondary school level in New Jersey, USA. She earned her D.Litt with concentrations in Literary Studies
and Irish Studies at Drew University, USA.