The uncanny as a method: semi-mimetic narratives, clashes of scales and borders disruption in Irish post-crash fiction

The present PhD thesis explores seven works of Irish fiction written during and after the Celtic Tiger era, examining how these texts blend realism with speculative and gothic elements to respond to economic and environmental crises. Covering works published between 2004 and 2021, the study highlights tensions between local, global, and planetary concerns. It introduces the theoretical framework of ‘Uncanny Realism’, synthesizing concepts from thinkers such as Jason Moore, Timothy Morton, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Amitav Ghosh, the Warwick Research Collective and Timothy Clark to analyze how these texts disrupt familiar worldviews through fragmented, non-linear narratives. Uncanny Realism operates across multiple temporal and spatial scales, engaging with both social constructs and planetary crises. Key analytical categories include the hybridization of genre and form, narrative unreliability, blurred boundaries between life and death, the formation of inter-worlds, and the presence of uncanny objects. The selected texts reflect a shift in Irish literature from realism to speculative forms in response to the collapse of the Celtic Tiger—a period of rapid economic growth (1994–2008) driven by foreign investment and mortgage lending, followed by a severe crash. This rupture exposed the entangled crises of the capitalist world ecology, making these texts ideal subjects for analysis. The thesis applies ‘Uncanny Realism’ to Irish literature’s engagement with three interrelated scales: local post-national economic and social transformations, Ireland’s semi-peripheral role within global capitalism, and its place in planetary environmental crises. The study examines works such as Notes from a Coma (2004) and Solar Bones (2016) by Mike McCormack, Nothing on Earth (2016) by Conor O’Callaghan, The Devil I Know (2012) by Claire Kilroy, Is Stacey Pregnant? (2014) by Tomás Mac Síomóin, The Fjord of Killary (2010) by Kevin Barry and The End of the World in a Cul de Sac (2021) by Louise Kennedy.