‘Didactic’ or ‘Obscene’?: Personal Accounts of Alcoholism in Contemporary Irish Writing

Abstract

Drawing on selected works of contemporary Irish fictional and autobiographical writing, this article examines how writers who have experienced alcohol addiction have represented themselves and their condition. Since the 1980s, historians of medicine have increasingly recognised that personal accounts of sickness and disease add much to our understanding of these encounters. This article adds to a growing body of scholarship by looking at the related topic of alcohol addiction. Among the major themes it addresses are the influences of medical frameworks, gender and socio-cultural environment on experiences and depictions of alcoholism in Ireland since circa the 1950s.