No Bland Facility - Selected Writings on Literature, Religion and Censorship (Hardcover)

This book presents the reader with a selection of the writings of Peter Connolly (1927-87) who retired as Professor of English Language and Literature at St Patrick's College, Maynooth in 1985. Divided thematically, the essays cover the major subjects that interested him: apart from Censorship, Literature (his areas of greatest expertise were in the modern novel and modern poetry) and Religion are represented by his essays `The Priest in Modern Irish Fiction', `W.B.Yeats: "the unchristened heart" ', `God in Modern Literature', `Tragedy', and `The Church in Ireland since Vatican II'. The issue on which Peter Connolly's ideas have had the most influence has undoubtedly been that of censorship, and the role he played in the public debate on censoring books in Ireland. Many of the distinctions he drew then could still have a useful role to play in the renewed contemporary debate, even though its focus has shifted towards the visual media, notably television. Included here are his essays `Censorship', `The Moralists and the Obscene', and `Thoughts after Longford'.