Teaching John McGahern's the Dark

<i>Teaching John McGahern's The Dark </i>provide an indispensable companion to the classic Irish novel. With an introduction aimed at first-time readers and four critical essays, this edition guides readers through the novel’s famously controversial history. While <i>The Dark</i><i> </i>was initially banned in Ireland for obscenity, scholars now demonstrate that McGahern’s novel of adolescence is not obscene, but revelatory, exposing the corruption underlying authority structures in mid-century Ireland—from the family to the church, to the government’s willingness to ignore national and communal trauma. <i>The Dark</i> is a story of alarming brutality, surprising tenderness, and poetic lyricism; a reflection of Irish society that maintains historical significance as contemporary Ireland continues to build its national identity. An invaluable resource, this edition gives students and scholars a rich source of contextualizing material to address the themes and significance of McGahern’s complex novel.