Featuring new essays by international literary scholars, the two-volume Companion to Irish Literature encompasses the full breadth of Ireland's literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the present day. * Covers an unprecedented historical range of Irish literature * Arranged in two volumes covering Irish literature from the medieval period to 1900, and its development through the twentieth century to the present day * Presents a re-visioning of twentieth-century Irish literature and a collection of the most up-to-date scholarship in the field as a whole * Includes a substantial number of women writers from the eighteenth century to the present day * Includes essays on leading contemporary authors, including Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Roddy Doyle, and Emma Donoghue * Introduces readers to the wide range of current approaches to studying Irish literature