Irish writer John McGahern stated in an interview with Eamon Maher, “I think fiction is a very serious thing, that while it is fiction, it is also a revelation of truth, or facts” (Maher 74). McGahern’s second novel, The Dark (1965), takes place in rural mid-century Ireland, with many scenes in the novels correlating to those in his memoir, published in 2005.
View More Shamrock Social Norms: Security, Catholicism, and Shame
This special issue is dedicated to papers presented at the biennial BACLS “What Happens Now?” Conference that took place on 2-3 September 2021. The conference focused on representing a variety of concerns and topics represented in contemporary literature studies, and these are reflected in the articles published in this issue: they address the intersections between literary studies, video games and television series, pertinent questions of representation and identity in contemporary literature, as well as exploring the political and social formations of the present through critical and creative methods.
View More Alluvium Editorial 10.1
. This essay interrogates how the novel tackles cultural perceptions of ASD and how Sam’s representation interlinks with the novel’s representation of neoliberalism. It will primarily argue that Stuart’s depiction of Alex and Sam’s performances as avatars both critiques and simultaneously subscribes to aspects of post-millennial neoliberalist society, engaging specifically with dispossession, self-help culture, career-centricity, and the focus on “family” (Stephen Crossley, 2016).
View More Affect, Minecraft and Neoliberal Techno-Utopianism in Keith Stuart’s “A Boy Made of Blocks”
Every year at 4am on the Monday that follows Ash Wednesday, the street lighting is turned off in the city of Basel, north Switzerland. The “Morgestraich” precession that follows signals the start of the Fasnacht Carnival. During…
View More Incipience and the Historical Subject