A Short History of Irish Literature

Ireland, though a relatively small country, has made a huge contribution to the world of literature. Irish novelists, poets and dramatists have
Ireland's oldest literary traditions, however, are found in the Irish language, referred to simply as "Irish". Indeed, Irish has the third oldest literature in Europe (after Greek and Latin) and the most significant body of written literature (both ancient and recent) of any Celtic language. Irish literature is rooted in Celtic mythology as well as the suffering and hardships the Irish people have experienced over the course of their history. Wit and humour, often in the form of satire or irony, have characterized much of Irish literature. Another key feature has been the ample use of wordplay - from the early sagas to the 20th-century experiments of James Joyce.
Modern Irish Fiction began in the 18th century, with writers such as Jonathon Swift who wrote Gulliver’s Travels (Les Voyages de Gulliver) in 1721 and Laurence Sterne. Gulliver’s Travels is both a parody of the “travellers’ tales” genre and satire on human nature. It follows the main character Lemuel Gulliver and his journey to four countries. He travels to Lilliput, a land of little people, Brobdingnag, a land of big people, Laputa, a land of intelligent but useless people, and Houyhnhnm, a land of horses. In each of these lands, Gulliver is confronted with the frailty of human nature and the fact that no form of government is ideal.
Laurence Stern is most well known for his novel The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman, a comedy published in 9 volumes which first appeared in 1759.
The 19th century also played host to a number of world-renowned Irish writers such as Bram Stoker, who wrote Dracula in 1897 and George Moore. The gothic novel Dracula, which is told through journal entries and letters written by several narrators, recounts the tale of the Transylvanian vampire, Count Dracula. The novel is