What's Unique About Irish-American Fiction?

Posted By: Liz Goodrich
Date Posted: 2/29/2004

Crystal McCage, assistant professor of writing and literacy at Central Oregon Community College, presents “The Unique Qualities of Irish-American Fiction: How History Influenced a Genre” at the Redmond Public Library on March 6 at 2:00 p.m. This program is free and open to the public.

According to McCage, Irish-American fiction has had a powerful impact on American Literature. Themes recurrent in Irish-American fiction include history, politics, religion and family as they relate to Irish-American ethnic identity. Some of the authors McCage examines are William Kennedy, Frank McCourt and Elizabeth Cullinan.

McCage, who holds a Master of Arts in English and is completing a Ph.D. program in rhetoric at Texas Woman’s University, is currently writing an article for the Encyclopedia of Ethnic American Literature on the Irish-American novel. Her presentation will include examination of pre-famine satire and of the powerful and traumatic themes born of a tragic event in Irish history. She will conclude her presentation with an analysis of the major themes of 20th century Irish-American writers and of the influence of previous generations on the authors of today.

For more information about this or other library programs, please call 312-1032.