'My Town': Proxopera and the Politics of Remembrance (Critical Essay‪)‬

I In May 1945, the twenty six-year-old, Benedict Kiely published a fascinating book, Counties of Contention, subtitled, A Study of the Origins and Implications of the Partition of Ireland. The study was re-issued in 2004 by the original publishers, Mercier. (1) Kiely has published two other studies, the groundbreaking, Poor Scholar: A Study of the Works and Days of William Carleton (1794-1869) in 1947 and Modern Irish Fiction: A Critique in 1950. (2) In 1999, A Raid into Dark Corners and Other Essays appeared under the imprint of Cork University Press. (3) Notwithstanding his importance as a maker of fiction, and memoir writer (4) Kiely's critical writing is important for a number of reasons other than the insight, which these works reflect upon his imaginative writing. From a generational point of view, Kiely represents that great wave of post-Independence writers who were caught up in the artistic, political, and cultural assessments of Irish nationalism, its achievements and failures, and who analysed these directly or indirectly as writers. It is curious to compare the writing of Kiely, in his late twenties--and of his contemporaries, both immediate and somewhat older, from Sean O'Faolain, Frank O'Connor, Patrick Kavanagh, John Hewitt to Anthony Cronin, Robert Greacen, among others--with the younger writers of today, few of whom would be drawn to the politically sensitive issues of today--sectarianism, for instance--as the partition of Ireland was to Kiely's generation. Even fewer would risk the wrath of their peers with a critical study of contemporary Irish fiction.