This book offers the first comprehensive discussion of the relationship between Modern Irish Literature and the Irish cinema, with twelve chapters written by experts in the field that deal with principal films, authors, and directors. This survey outlines the influence of screen adaptation of important texts from the national literature on the construction of an Irish cinema, many of whose films because of cultural constraints were produced and exhibited outside the country until very recently. Authors discussed include George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Liam O¿Flaherty, Christy Brown, Edna O¿Brien, James Joyce, and Brian Friel. The films analysed in this volume include THE QUIET MAN, THE INFORMER, MAJOR BARBARA, THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES, MY LEFT FOOT, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, THE SNAPPER, and DANCING AT LUGHNASA. The introduction features a detailed discussion of the cultural and political questions raised by the promotion of forms of national identity by Ireland¿s literary andcinematic establishments.

Provides a new view of how Irishness has been brought to the screen

Introduction: Modern Irish Drama and Fiction on Screen. Barton Palmer and Marc Conner.- 1. Liam O'Flaherty's The Informer and the aesthetics of terror. Homer Pettey.- 2. Deconstructing Political Adaptations: Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars. Laurence Raw.- 3. Genre and Charisma in Shaw's Major Barbara. Doug McFarland.- 4. Lewin's Wilde: Aestheticism, Moralism, and Hollywood. Edward Adams.- 5. 'Wonderful and Incomparable Beauty': Adapting Period Aesthetic for The Importance of Being Earnest. Jennifer Jenkins.- 6. The Quiet Man: From Story to Film. Michael Patrick Gillespie.- 7. The Girl with Green Eyes. R. Barton Palmer.- 8. John Huston's 'The Dead'. Coilin Owens.- 9. Sheridan's Supercrip: Daniel Day-Lewis and the Wonder of My Left Foot. Tiffany Gilbert.- 10. Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy and Filming Ireland's 'New Picture'. Julieann Ulin.- 11. 1960s Popular Culture in 1960s Provincial Ireland: Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy. Michael Kissane.- 12. The Ritual of Memory in Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa. Marc Conner.