Frank Shovlin Book

Launch of Professor Frank Shovlin’s new book Touchstones: John McGahern’s Classical Style and The Institute of Irish Studies Christmas Drinks Reception for colleagues, students and Friends of the Institute.

6:00pm - 8:00pm / Thursday 15th December 2016 / Venue: Eleanor Rathbone Theatre Eleanor Rathbone Building
Type: Other / Category: Department
  • Suitable for: Staff, students, alumni, friends of the Institute and the general public.
  • Admission: Free, Bookings essential. Contact Dorothy Lynch at dorothy@liv.ac.uk
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Published by Liverpool University Press, Professor Frank Shovlin’s new book Touchstones examines the ways in which John McGahern became a writer through his reading. This reading, it is shown, was both extensive and intensive, and tended towards immersion in the classics. As such, new insights are provided into McGahern’s admiration and use of writers as diverse as Dante Alighieri, William Blake, James Joyce, Albert Camus and several others. Evidence for these claims is found both through close reading of McGahern’s published texts as well as unprecedented sleuthing in his extensive archive of papers held at the National University of Ireland, Galway. The ultimate intention of the book is to draw attention to the very literary and writerly nature of McGahern as an artist, and to place him, not just as a great Irish writer, but as part of a long and venerable European tradition.

The book launch will be followed by a special Christmas drinks reception for colleagues, students and Friends of the Institute to mark the festive season.

For more information contact Dorothy Lynch at dorothy@liv.ac.uk