The Book of Irish Bulls: Gaffes, Jests, and Paradoxes in National Literature and Rhetoric

by E C Walsh

"What is that unforgettable line?" So asks Winnie, the heroine of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, enacting a long tradition of bulls in Irish literature and rhetoric. Defined as an apparently self-contradictory or nonsensical statement, the Irish bull has a long history in the national culture, especially on stage. In some ways, the bull foreshadowed Absurdist theatre: both suggest a deeper meaning for surface-level nonsense. Since the Renaissance,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0578666278
• ISBN13: 9780578666273
• Release Date: March 2020
• Publisher: Dignam Press
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"