Cover -- Volume I -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Contributors Notes of Vol. I -- Preface -- Part One -- Chapter 1 Before Now: An Essay on Pre-Contemporary Fiction and Poetry -- Chapter 2 British Literature Today: Twenty-First Century British Literature -- References -- Chapter 3 Introduction to Contemporary Irish Writing -- References -- Chapter 4 Overview of Modern/Contemporary Drama -- Part Two -- Chapter 5 Aidan Higgins: Disguised Autobiographies -- Introduction: Higgins' counter-realist experimentalism -- References -- Notes -- Chapter 6 Brian Friel

Friel's Early Life and Artistic Growth -- Apprentice Works and Inspirations -- The Birth of Modern Irish Drama -- The 'Troubles', Field Day, and Friel's Wild(e) Side -- Internationalizing Irish Drama -- The Later Years -- References -- Chapter 7 Alan Bennett -- References -- Chapter 8 Edward Bond -- The Future -- Bibliography -- Note -- Chapter 9 Seamus Heaney -- References -- Chapter 10 Michael Moorcock -- Notes -- Chapter 11 Angela Carter -- References -- Chapter 12 Christina Reid -- Plays -- Themes and Technique -- Conclusion -- References -- Note -- Chapter 13 Bernard MacLaverty -- References

Notes -- Chapter 13a Eavan Boland's Poetry: The Inoperative Community -- Introduction -- The Ethical Contemplation of Violence and Death -- A Lost Community No Longer Fusional: Erasures and Silences -- Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 14 I Am, Therefore I Think: Being and Thinking Inside the World of John Banville's Fiction -- Introduction -- Long Lankin: 'Where's the Little Heir of This House?' -- The Artistic Process: When We Dead Awaken ... We Find That We Have Never Lived -- The Infinities and The Plight of Being Non-human -- Chapter 15 Julian Barnes -- References

Chapter 16 Where They Are: Language and Place in James Kelman's Fiction -- Language -- Place -- Conclusion -- James Kelman: Published Novels and Short Story Collections -- Bibliography -- Chapter 17 Howard Barker (and " the Art of Theatre ") -- Biographical Landmarks -- The Sociopolitical Premises of the Theatre of Catastrophe -- The Theatre of Catastrophe: The Necessity of Tragedy -- The Art of Theatre: Tragedy and Intimacy -- References -- Chapter 18 Marina Lewycka -- References -- Chapter 19 Dermot Healy -- References -- Chapter 20 David Edgar -- References -- Chapter 21 Ian McEwan