Uncanny Realism and the Irish post-crash novel

The chapter provides both a literary and historical overview of the Celtic Tiger and its collapse, setting the stage for the analysis of the novels. It situates the Celtic Tiger and the economic crash within the broader context of Ireland’s semi-peripheralisation in the capitalist world-system and discusses the socio-economic specifics of the Tiger and the crash. The chapter highlights a realism–irrealism continuum in post-crash fiction, positioning the selected novels as a blend of speculative and realist elements. Whereas previous critical accounts have read post-crash Irish fiction through the lens of trauma, economic realism, or national identity, Uncanny Realism foregrounds their formal and affective estrangement, situating these works within trans-scalar and ontologically unstable frameworks reflective of the Capitalocene. Applying Uncanny Realism to specific geographical sites aids in understanding the material consequences of capitalist world ecology, reveals global networks, and broadens perspectives on planetary dynamics, with the collapse of the Celtic Tiger serving as a point of fissure through which current interconnected crises become visible.