Ireland’sGreatHungerMuseumatQuinnipiacUniversitypublishestheFamineFolios,auniqueresourceforstudents,scholarsandresearchers,aswellasgeneralreaders,coveringmanyaspectsoftheFamineinIrelandfrom1845-1852--theworstdemographiccatastropheofnineteenth-centuryEurope.Theessaysareinterdisciplinaryinnature,andmakeavailablenewresearchinFaminestudiesbyinternationallyestablishedscholarsinhistory,arthistory,culturaltheory,philosophy,mediahistory,politicaleconomy,literatureandmusic.TheGreatHungerwasthemostgothiceventinIreland’shistoryandhashauntedIrishliteratureeversince.InthestruggletoresistthediminishmentofthistragicepisodeinIreland’scolonialhistory,IrishGothicwriterspreservedthememoryoftheFaminewhenageneralsilenceprevailedamonghistoriansandauthorsoftheVictoriannovel.BothIrishGothicliteratureandtheworkofthemodernists(Joyce,YeatsandBeckett)resonatewiththeculturalmemoryofthesufferingofmillions,eitherlyinginunmarkedgravesorforciblytransplantedtoaharshnewworld.BlackRoadstracestheimpactoftheFamineonIrishliteraturefromWilliamCarlton’sTheBlackProphet(fromwhichthetitleistaken)tomorecontemporaryworkbyauthorslikePatrickMcCabe,SeamusHeaneyandEavanBoland,andplaywrightslikeTomMurphy,ConorMacPhersonandMarinaCarr.PostFamine,BlackRoadsargues,allIrishliteratureisabouttheFamine,leavingthediscussionaboutwhat“Irishness“meanscenteredonwhatSeamusDeanedescribedas“whattheFaminemeans.“
