Katarzyna Ojrzyńska and Wit Pietrzak (eds.), Tradition and Experimentation in Irish Literature and Theatre since Modernism, Sciendo, 2024, 170 p.

Abstract

Within a global context that demands of its artists nothing less than the thorough integration of old and new practices, the present volume emerges as a testament to the (r)evolutionary relevance of Irish cultural productions. As noted in the acknowledgments, the collection marks the expansion of a collaborative project that first assumed its textual form in 2019, drawing a portion of its chapters from a thematic section published in the Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies. In moving beyond the paradigm of “Competing Traditions” promoted in the initial journal block, the extended editorial stewardship by Katarzyna Ojrzyńska and Wit Pietrzak was meant to respond to a recalibrated academic scope. Divided into four distinct sections, the structure of the volume highlights the main critical spheres wherein the interplay of tradition and experimentation, rather than their unequivocal separation or “constant battle” for dominance, has constituted the main driving force in the evolution of Irish letters.