Crossing the boundaries of a single-author study, this book rediscovers Flann O-Brien-s attempt to synthesise a commercially successful Irish literary project from international avant-garde influences.
Placing the early work of Flann O-Brien - just as experimental and yet aimed explicitly at achieving a wide readership - into a global context, this book uses the new evidence of his collaborations to refigure O''Brien as a networked writer who drew on experimental techniques to produce new categories of writing with the aim of rethinking Irish culture and delivering a commercially successful project. It reveals a network of Irish cultural production around him that draws on diverse sources such as English comic magazines, Dadaist photomontage, Expressionism and Central European theatre, as well as on well-known writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Franz Kafka.
By rethinking Flann O-Brien in this way, the book also rewrites the cultural history of Ireland in the
