Teaching John McGahern's "The Dark"

Teaching John McGahern's "The Dark" provides 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 The Dark 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. The Dark 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.