New Publication

Ina Bergmann, "Colum McCann, TransAtlantic (2013): The Green Atlantic Revis(it)ed." Great Irish Novels of the Twenty-First Century. Ed. Sarah Joy Link, Katharina Rennhak. Trier: wvt, 2026. 75-90. Irish Studies in Europe 13.

"Ina Bergmann shows how Colum McCann’s TransAtlantic (2013) interweaves the seemingly disparate plot lines of its male protagonists via a matrilineal storyline that prioritizes herstory over history. Drawing on theories of transnationalism, she also demonstrates how McCann highlights Ireland’s integral role in representing what Bergmann calls 'transatlantic entanglements' between North American and English literatures and cultures.“ (p. 6)

Sarah Joy Link, Katharina Rennhak (eds.) 
Great Irish Novels of the Twenty-First Century (2026)
What makes a “great” Irish novel in the twenty-first century, and who gets to decide? This volume brings together leading scholars of Irish literature to explore this very question. Rather than assembling a definitive canon, Great Irish Novels of the Twenty-First Century takes a more revealing approach: each contributor selects a novel they consider “great,” reflecting on the critical and cultural processes that informed their choice. The result is not a ranked list, but a conversation about literary taste and value, and the evolving role of literary criticism today. Spanning internationally acclaimed authors and lesser-known voices alike, the essays illuminate how contemporary Irish fiction renegotiates enduring concerns – history and memory, family and identity, art and imagination – while engaging with the social and political realities of twenty-first-century Ireland in aesthetically rewarding ways. At once an exploration of contemporary Irish writing and a reflection on the practice of criticism itself, this volume invites readers to reconsider what it means to call a novel “great”.

For more information see: https://www.wvttrier.de/p/great-irish-novels-of-the-twenty-first-century