‘Intimacy and the Insipid: Sensual proximity in the work of John McGahern’

This text is concerned with tracing the contours of Irish writer John McGahern’s narrative fiction under the circumstances in which he explores the theme of sexuality in his early novels. It further seeks to explore how sexuality governs how human beings engage and understand the world in which they live within Irish society in the 20th century and in so doing, attempts to bring about greater freedom in how such matters are portrayed and discussed in the wider community.