This volume sets out to investigate how various forms of authority in Irish culture and history have been challenged and transformed by a crisis situation. In literature and the arts, a reappraisal of the authority of canonical authors - and also of traditional forms, paradigms and critical discourses - principally revolves around intertextuality and rewriting, as well as the wider crisis of (authoritative) representation. What is the authority of an author, of a text, of literature itself? How do works of fiction represent, generate or resolve crises on their own aesthetic, stylistic and representational terms? The Irish Republic has faced a number of serious crises and challenges since it came into existence. In recent years, the collapse of the Celtic Tiger has acted as a catalyst for change, revealing various structures of political, religious and economic authority giving way under pressure. In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement has led to major developments as new authorities endowed with legislative and executive powers have been set up. In its focus on the subject of authority and crisis in Ireland, this book opens up a rich and varied field of investigation.

Carine Berbéri is Senior Lecturer in British Studies at the University of Tours. Her research interests and publications are principally in the field of British politics, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between Britain and Europe. She is also working on the impact of British devolution and its links with European integration issues. Martine Pelletier is Senior Lecturer in English and Irish Studies at the University of Tours. She has published widely on Brian Friel, Field Day and contemporary Irish and Northern Irish theatre. She wrote the prefaces to Alain Delahaye's recent French translations of Brian Friel's plays.