Rough Beasts - 9781789620344

Rough BeastsThe Monstrous in Irish Fiction, 18002000\nAuthor(s): Jack Fennell\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Liverpool University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Liverpool University Press\nISBN-13: 9781789620344, 978-1789620344\nSynopsis\nMonsters and other supernatural malefactors disrupt the human world in distinct ways: werewolves and cunning beasts challenge the philosophical distinction between human and animal; demons offer deceptive pacts to prey upon our delusions of mastery over the world; capricious fairies claim dominion over the landscape and exact disproportionate revenge for our intrusions. When a monster appears, human history must halt until it departs.\n\nIrish history, meanwhile, has been punctured by dramatic ruptures, such as the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849. Monstrous imagery flourishes in these ruptures, so it is hardly surprising that Irish literature boasts a great many rough beasts and ravenous corpses. \n\nIn this book, various monsters from Irish literature.