Dr Michael G. Cronin

    English, Sexualities and Gender

    Lecturer / Assistant Professor; Undergraduate Programme Co-ordinator

    Iontas Building
    0.37 Iontas
    (01) 708 6419

    Biography

    Michael G Cronin is a Lecturer in English, specialising in twentieth-century and contemporary Irish literature and in sexuality studies.
    He received his MA from the University of Sussex, having studied on the renowned Sexual Dissidence and Cultural Change programme. He subsequently completed a doctorate on the twentieth-century Irish Catholic bildungsroman at Maynooth University, where he was an IRCHSS Government of Ireland scholar.  Along with Impure Thoughts, he has published essays on twentieth-century and contemporary Irish fiction, and on contemporary Irish sexual politics.  He was Guest Editor of a special issue of Irish Review (Irish Review 46, Autumn 2013) on Irish Studies in the wake of the 2008 crash. He is currently working on a project provisionally entitled 'Revolutionary Bodies: homoeroticism and the political imagination in Irish writing'.

    Research Interests

    Irish Literary and Cultural Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies, specifically Marxist perspectives; history of the novel; Marxist literary theory.
    My current book project is provisionally entitled 'Revolutionary Bodies: homoeroticism and the political imagination in Irish writing'.
    A study of the erotics and politics of the male body in Irish fiction, the book will examine work by Brendan Behan, John Broderick and Colm Tóibín. It will also critically analyse the emergence of contemporary Irish gay fiction since 1993, especially its most notable genres: the coming out romance and the historical romance. The central aim of the project is to assess the role of the novel in the evolution of Irish LGBT politics since the 1970s, mapping a literary and cultural space where the utopian aspirations of sexual liberation have clashed with the reformism and neo-liberal political rationality of identity politics.


    Books

      Year Publication
    2022 Revolutionary Bodies: homoeroticism and the political imagination in Irish writing (forthcoming).
    Michael G Cronin (2022) Revolutionary Bodies: homoeroticism and the political imagination in Irish writing (forthcoming). Manchester: Manchester UP. [Details]
    2022 Sexual/Liberation (forthcoming).
    Michael G Cronin (2022) Sexual/Liberation (forthcoming). Cork: Cork UP/Sireacht. [Details]
    2012 Impure Thoughts: sexuality, Catholicism and literature in twentieth-century Ireland.
    Michael G. Cronin (2012) Impure Thoughts: sexuality, Catholicism and literature in twentieth-century Ireland. Manchester: Manchester University Press. [Details]

    Book Chapters

      Year Publication
    2020 '‘Our nameless desires’: the erotics of time and space in contemporary Irish lesbian and gay fiction'
    Michael G. Cronin (2020) '‘Our nameless desires’: the erotics of time and space in contemporary Irish lesbian and gay fiction' In: Liam Harte (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Fiction. Oxford: Oxford UP. [Details]
    2019 ''Eros and Liberation: the homoerotic body in Borstal Boy''
    Michael G Cronin (2019) ''Eros and Liberation: the homoerotic body in Borstal Boy'' In: John McCourt (eds). Reading Brendan Behan. Cork: Cork University Press. [Details]
    2019 '‘Rebellious Devotion: Catholicism and the limits of Modernism’'
    Michael G Cronin (2019) '‘Rebellious Devotion: Catholicism and the limits of Modernism’' In: Gregory Castle and Patrick Bixby (eds). A History of Irish Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Details]
    2018 '‘Between Holyhead and Kingstown’: Anglo-Irish perspectives on the ‘character’ of British fiction'
    Michael G. Cronin (2018) '‘Between Holyhead and Kingstown’: Anglo-Irish perspectives on the ‘character’ of British fiction' In: Dougal McNeill and Charles Ferrall (eds). Futility and Anarchy?British Literature in Transition, 1920-1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Details]
    2018 'In the wake of Joyce: Irish writing after 1939'
    Cronin M. (2018) 'In the wake of Joyce: Irish writing after 1939' In: The Oxford History of the Novel in English: Volume 7: British and Irish Fiction Since 1940. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [DOI] [Details]
    2016 ''To Right the Wrong of the People': vulnerability and revolutionary desire in Patrick Pearse's drama''
    Michael G. Cronin (2016) ''To Right the Wrong of the People': vulnerability and revolutionary desire in Patrick Pearse's drama'' In: Eugene McNulty and Róisín Ní Ghairbhí (eds). Patrick Pearse and the Theatre. Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
    2016 ''Pain, pleasure and revolution: the body in Roger Casement’s writings.''
    Michael G. Cronin (2016) ''Pain, pleasure and revolution: the body in Roger Casement’s writings.'' In: Fionnuala Dillane, Naomi McAreavey and Emilie Pine (eds). The Body in Pain in Irish Literature and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [Details]
    2015 'Irish studies between the past and the future'
    Cronin M. (2015) 'Irish studies between the past and the future' In: Tom Inglis (eds). Are the Irish Different?. Manchester: Manchester University Press. [Details]
    2014 'Clubs, closets and catwalks: GAA stars and the politics of contemporary Irish masculinity'
    Cronin M. (2014) 'Clubs, closets and catwalks: GAA stars and the politics of contemporary Irish masculinity' In: Masculinity and Irish Popular Culture: Tiger's Tales. [DOI] [Details]
    2012 '‘Fantastic Longings: The Moral Cartography of Kate O’Brien’s Mary Lavelle’'
    Michael G. Cronin (2012) '‘Fantastic Longings: The Moral Cartography of Kate O’Brien’s Mary Lavelle’' In: Werner Huber, Sandra Mayer and Julia Novak (eds). Irish Studies in Europe, 4. Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag. [Details]

    Peer Reviewed Journals

      Year Publication
    2018 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Sex: Modernization and Sexuality in Contemporary Irish Scholarship'
    Cronin, MG (2018) 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Sex: Modernization and Sexuality in Contemporary Irish Scholarship'. Boundary 2, 45 :231-252 [DOI] [full-text] [Details]
    2010 'Kate OBrien and the Erotics of Liberal Catholic Dissent'
    Michael G. Cronin (2010) 'Kate OBrien and the Erotics of Liberal Catholic Dissent'. Field Day Review, 6 [full-text] [Details]
    2004 'He's My Country: Liberalism, Nationalism, and Sexuality in Contemporary Irish Gay Fiction'
    Michael G. Cronin (2004) 'He's My Country: Liberalism, Nationalism, and Sexuality in Contemporary Irish Gay Fiction'. ÉIRE-IRELAND, 39 :250-267 [full-text] [Details]

    Other Journals

      Year Publication
    2013 'Review of Eibhear Walshe Oscars Shadow: Wilde, homosexuality and modern Ireland'
    Michael G. Cronin (2013) 'Review of Eibhear Walshe Oscars Shadow: Wilde, homosexuality and modern Ireland' Irish Literary Supplement, 32 . [full-text] [Details]

    Conference Contributions

      Year Publication
    2021 Catholicism and literary culture in Scotland, Ireland and England: comparative perspectives.
    Michael G Cronin (2021) Catholicism and literary culture in Scotland, Ireland and England: comparative perspectives. [Oral Presentation], 'Holy God/ tis a fearful death': religious feeling, aesthetics and political dissent in Irish Modernism, University of Glasgow (online) , 01-JUN-21 - 02-JUN-21 [Details]
    2021 Strange Country: Ireland in politics and culture 1998-2021 (SOFEIR annual conference).
    Michael G Cronin (2021) Strange Country: Ireland in politics and culture 1998-2021 (SOFEIR annual conference). [Oral Presentation], ‘A chink in the fabric of reality’: politics and aesthetics in ‘Celtic Tiger’ fiction, Université Paris Nanterre (online) , 20-MAY-21 - 21-MAY-21 [Details]
    2019 Faces of Change: researching sexuality and gender at Maynooth University.
    Michael G Cronin (2019) Faces of Change: researching sexuality and gender at Maynooth University. [Oral Presentation], Erotics and politics of ‘closetedness’ in Colm Tóibín’s fiction, Maynooth University [Details]
    2019 Columbia Irish Studies Seminar.
    Michael G Cronin (2019) Columbia Irish Studies Seminar. [Invited Lecture], The Political Imagination of Irish Lesbian and Gay Fiction, Columbia University, New York [Details]
    2019 Dublin One City, One Book Festival.
    Michael G Cronin (2019) Dublin One City, One Book Festival. [Public presentations], The Country Girls and the Coming of Age Novel: a public event chaired by Michael G Cronin, Peasre St Public Libraray, Dublin [Details]
    2019 OUTing the Past:the Festival of LGBT History.
    Michael G Cronin (2019) OUTing the Past:the Festival of LGBT History. [Invited Oral Presentation], Queering the Rising: presentation on Roger Casement and Patrick Pearse, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin [Details]
    2018 32nd Irish Conference of Historians.
    Michael G Cronin (2018) 32nd Irish Conference of Historians. [Keynote Address], Sex, class and hegemony in twentieth-century Ireland, UCC [Details]
    2018 Dublin Joyce Summer School.
    Michael G Cronin (2018) Dublin Joyce Summer School. [Invited Lecture], ‘Sexuality, human needs and the political imagination in Portrait.', UCD/The James Joyce Centre [Details]
    2017 Invited speaker for Irish Literary Society in London.
    Michael G Cronin (2017) Invited speaker for Irish Literary Society in London. [Oral Presentation], Writing Irish Gay Lives, London [Details]
    2017 Competing Traditions: 20th and 21st Century Irish Literatures between Realism and Experimentation.
    Michael G Cronin (2017) Competing Traditions: 20th and 21st Century Irish Literatures between Realism and Experimentation. [Oral Presentation], Strumpet City and the historical novel as untimely critique, University of Lodz, Poland [Details]
    2016 Revolutionary Masculinities.
    Michael G. Cronin (2016) Revolutionary Masculinities. [Oral Presentation], Pain, pleasure and revolution: the body in Roger Casement's writing, Maynooth University [Details]
    2016 XXV International James Joyce Conference.
    Michael G. Cronin (2016) XXV International James Joyce Conference. [Oral Presentation], The influence of 'Portrait' on Post-Independence Irish Writing, University of London [Details]
    2016 All's Changed: 1916 and Modernism.
    Michael G. Cronin (2016) All's Changed: 1916 and Modernism. [Oral Presentation], ‘Patrick Pearse: aesthetics and erotics of heroic masculinity’, Maynooth University [Details]
    2016 Marginal Irish Modernisms.
    Michael G. Cronin (2016) Marginal Irish Modernisms. [Oral Presentation], Forrest Reid: aesthetics and erotics of colonial modernity, Liverpool John Moores University [Details]

    Book Review

      Year Publication
    2015 Review of Rosemary Hennessy, Fires on the Border: the passionate politics of labor organising on the Mexican frontera and James Penney, After Queer Theory: the limits of sexual politics. .
    Michael G. Cronin (2015) Review of Rosemary Hennessy, Fires on the Border: the passionate politics of labor organising on the Mexican frontera and James Penney, After Queer Theory: the limits of sexual politics. . Book Review [Details]
    2014 Review of Munkelt et. al. (eds.) Postcolonial translocations: cultural representation and critical spatial thinking .
    Michael G. Cronin (2014) Review of Munkelt et. al. (eds.) Postcolonial translocations: cultural representation and critical spatial thinking . Book Review [DOI] [Details]
    2014 Review of Mark Quigley, Empire’s Wake: postcolonial Irish writing and the politics of modern literary form.
    Michael G. Cronin (2014) Review of Mark Quigley, Empire’s Wake: postcolonial Irish writing and the politics of modern literary form. Book Review [Details]
    2014 Review of Stuti Khanna, The Contemporary Novel and the City: reconceiving national and narrative form .
    Michael G. Cronin (2014) Review of Stuti Khanna, The Contemporary Novel and the City: reconceiving national and narrative form . Book Review [Details]
    2013 Review of Joseph Valente, The Myth of Manliness in Irish National Culture, 1880-1922.
    Michael G. Cronin (2013) Review of Joseph Valente, The Myth of Manliness in Irish National Culture, 1880-1922. Book Review [full-text] [Details]
    2013 Irish Review (Special Issue: Criticism and the Crash).
    Michael G. Cronin (guest editor) (2013) Irish Review (Special Issue: Criticism and the Crash). Book Review [Details]