Postgraduate Researchers

PhD Research Student - School of Tourism and Hospitality Management

Project title: Narratives of Place: Reflections on The Writing of John McGahern (1934-2006) 

Project abstract: 

Banned and Booker prize-nominated, John McGahern, (1934-2006) is considered one of the most outstanding Irish writers of his generation. As McGahern’s writing is steeped in description, particularly of landscape, I am considering his work through the lens of place, using headings such as, Narratives, Politics, Spirit or Sense of and Legacy of Place. Combining the theories of philosophers on place, and the work of commentators and critics of McGahern’s writing, I am looking at ways in which the author intertwines complex themes of family, sexuality, societal expectations, inner conflicts and community. I am exploring how McGahern’s descriptions of place functions, not only as a reflection on the individual characters’ interior worlds, but also as a critique of the societal structures that shape their existence. My thesis engages with spatial theory from the work of Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau, Gaston Bachelard, Robert T. Tally Jnr. and Tim Creswell, amongst others. I am focusing on McGahern’s novels, The Dark (1965), The Pornographer (1979), Amongst Women (1990), That They May Face The Rising Sun (2002), as well as his short stories, ‘Parachutes’, ‘The Gold Watch’ and ‘The Country Funeral’. My work also includes McGahern’s nonfiction: Memoir (2005), Love of The World (2009), letters and work from his archive housed in and curated by Galway University. Central to the thesis, as well as to the theoretical framework, are the actual words penned by the author. Through examining and quoting his beautifully constructed sentences, I hope, in my final thesis, to weave a rich tapestry of words and theory that will engage, add meaning and on the twentieth anniversary of his death, reignite the passion for John McGahern as an Irish writer of great importance. 

Supervisors: Dr. Eamon Maher, TU Dublin, Prof. Eugene O’Brien, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick