@article{pr 3296, author = {Rodney Sharkey}, title = {A Tale of Two Tales: Irony, Identity and the Fictions of Anthony Cronin and Brian O’Nolan}, volume = {5}, year = {2021}, url = {https://parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/3296/}, issue = {1}, doi = {10.16995/pr.3296}, abstract = {This essay examines two novels by Anthony Cronin in order to argue that a tendency towards either proliferation or subtraction determines late Irish modernist aesthetics. Having established that the repetition of material in Cronin's texts indicates a tendency towards subtraction, the essay positions Brian O'Nolan's work within a modernist tradition that favours proliferation, and concludes by arguing that the role irony plays in successful proliferation is problematic for a socialist literary aesthetic.}, month = {6}, pages = {1–17}, keywords = {Aesthetics,Subtraction,Proliferation,Irish literary modernism,Dead as Doornails,Life of Riley,Brian O'Nolan,Anthony Cronin}, issn = {2634-145X}, publisher={Open Library of Humanities}, journal = {The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies} }