Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds and the construction of an alternative heroic canon : an intertextual analysis

Abstract

The title "At Swim-Two-Birds and the Construction of an Alternative Heroic Canon" refers to O'Brien's intertextual re-reading of traditional Irish texts (early, middle and modem Irish) providing a new image of a changing Ireland. The aim of the thesis was to trace and analyse the sources which inspired the novel, which were included and woven into the text. The main works analysed, Buile Suibhne and the Tain, revealed unexpected connections with other texts in an all-comprehending work parodying fragments belonging to the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, the King's Cycle and the Fenian Cycle.