Silence in Donal Ryan’s Fiction

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines acclaimed Irish author Donal Ryan’s writing with a view to analysing the relevance of variations of the theme of silence and, more specifically, to exploring how silence conforms to the representations of communities and individuals in his work. Drawing on the theoretical tenets of silence in the work of Pierre Macherey, Pierre Bourdieu, George Steiner, William Franke and Michel Foucault, this chapter examines how Ryan’s writing represents individual and community minor/major traumas, tensions, hidden secrets, shame, crises, violence and prejudice. Ultimately, the chapter argues that in Ryan’s work inconvenient truths, contained by silence, point to the effects and consequences of power structures and institutional and societal frameworks in contemporary Ireland.