‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist agriculture in the farming novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness
Ireland and Iceland, both (semi-)peripheral islands in relation to Europe's core hegemonic capitalism, once shared similar farming systems based on small holdings and rotational grazing. Today, however, agriculture looks increasingly different in each nation, for at critical junctures their agr...
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Language: | English |
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Edinburgh University Press
2019
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10379/15450 https://doi.org/10.3366/iur.2019.0381 |
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ftnuigalway:oai:aran.library.nuigalway.ie/:10379/15450 2023-06-11T04:13:10+02:00 ‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist agriculture in the farming novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness Dennis, Ryan 2019-09-18T18:40:02Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10379/15450 https://doi.org/10.3366/iur.2019.0381 en eng Edinburgh University Press Irish University Review Dennis, Ryan. (2019). ‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist Agriculture in the Farming Novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness. Irish University Review, 49(1), 74-89. doi:10.3366/iur.2019.0381 2047-2153 http://hdl.handle.net/10379/15450 doi:10.3366/iur.2019.0381 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/ Productivist Agriculture Farming Novels Agrarian Regimes John McGahern Hálldor Laxness Irish Fiction That They May Face the Rising Sun Independent People Article 2019 ftnuigalway https://doi.org/10.3366/iur.2019.0381 2023-05-28T18:06:21Z Ireland and Iceland, both (semi-)peripheral islands in relation to Europe's core hegemonic capitalism, once shared similar farming systems based on small holdings and rotational grazing. Today, however, agriculture looks increasingly different in each nation, for at critical junctures their agriculture policy decisions took radically divergent paths. This paper will examine Irish writer John McGahern's That They May Face the Rising Sun and the Icelandic novel Independent People by Hálldor Laxness as farming novels that ultimately stand as responses to these agricultural policies during the periods they were made. It will contend that, given each author's experience in farming, the novels must be read as acts of political intent meant to provide warnings against productivist policies and the loss of social and rural capital they generate. In connecting these works to the specific agricultural policies enacted and practiced at the time of their writing, a form of resistance will be brought to light that has been overlooked thus far in their registration as world literature. Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway: ARAN Irish University Review 49 1 74 89 |
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Open Polar |
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National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway: ARAN |
op_collection_id |
ftnuigalway |
language |
English |
topic |
Productivist Agriculture Farming Novels Agrarian Regimes John McGahern Hálldor Laxness Irish Fiction That They May Face the Rising Sun Independent People |
spellingShingle |
Productivist Agriculture Farming Novels Agrarian Regimes John McGahern Hálldor Laxness Irish Fiction That They May Face the Rising Sun Independent People Dennis, Ryan ‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist agriculture in the farming novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness |
topic_facet |
Productivist Agriculture Farming Novels Agrarian Regimes John McGahern Hálldor Laxness Irish Fiction That They May Face the Rising Sun Independent People |
description |
Ireland and Iceland, both (semi-)peripheral islands in relation to Europe's core hegemonic capitalism, once shared similar farming systems based on small holdings and rotational grazing. Today, however, agriculture looks increasingly different in each nation, for at critical junctures their agriculture policy decisions took radically divergent paths. This paper will examine Irish writer John McGahern's That They May Face the Rising Sun and the Icelandic novel Independent People by Hálldor Laxness as farming novels that ultimately stand as responses to these agricultural policies during the periods they were made. It will contend that, given each author's experience in farming, the novels must be read as acts of political intent meant to provide warnings against productivist policies and the loss of social and rural capital they generate. In connecting these works to the specific agricultural policies enacted and practiced at the time of their writing, a form of resistance will be brought to light that has been overlooked thus far in their registration as world literature. Peer reviewed |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Dennis, Ryan |
author_facet |
Dennis, Ryan |
author_sort |
Dennis, Ryan |
title |
‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist agriculture in the farming novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness |
title_short |
‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist agriculture in the farming novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness |
title_full |
‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist agriculture in the farming novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness |
title_fullStr |
‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist agriculture in the farming novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness |
title_full_unstemmed |
‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist agriculture in the farming novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness |
title_sort |
‘out of proportion to the small loss’: productivist agriculture in the farming novels of john mcgahern and halldór laxness |
publisher |
Edinburgh University Press |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10379/15450 https://doi.org/10.3366/iur.2019.0381 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
Irish University Review Dennis, Ryan. (2019). ‘Out of Proportion to the Small Loss’: Productivist Agriculture in the Farming Novels of John McGahern and Halldór Laxness. Irish University Review, 49(1), 74-89. doi:10.3366/iur.2019.0381 2047-2153 http://hdl.handle.net/10379/15450 doi:10.3366/iur.2019.0381 |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3366/iur.2019.0381 |
container_title |
Irish University Review |
container_volume |
49 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
74 |
op_container_end_page |
89 |
_version_ |
1768389877932490752 |