Autobiography, Epistemology and the Irish Tradition: The Example of Denis Johnston

The Irish autobiographer of Denis Johnston's generation writes in a tradition of powerful precursors. George Moore, W.B.Yeats, Sean O'Casey, Oliver St. John Gogarty: each either published volume upon volume to tell the story of his life, or returned to the same events in repeated retellings. ¹ Despite striking differences of style and tone, these autobiographers of the Irish Literary Renaissance converge in a number of their preoccupations.