Rob Doyle

Rob Doyle studierte Philosophie und Psychologie am Trinity College Dublin, bevor er sich ganz ins Schreiben stürzte. Seine Texte sind in Periodika wie The New York Times und The Observer erschienen, der 2014 veröffentlichte Debütroman Here Are the Young Men fand für die Darstellung jugendlicher Desorientiertheit in der Dubliner Subkultur einige Beachtung und wurde 2020 u. a. mit Anya Taylor-Joy in der Hauptrolle verfilmt. Es folgten der Erzählband This Is the Ritual (2016) sowie die Romane Threshold (2020) und Autobibliography (2021), in denen Doyle autobiografische Versatzstücke, philosophische Reflexionen und literarisches Experiment – darunter auch eine irische Bernhard-Imitation – miteinander verbindet.

When I think of Ireland, John-Paul Finnegan said as we stood on the deck of the ferry while it pulled out of Holyhead, I think of a limitless ignorance. And not just an ignorance, but a wallowing in ignorance, akin to the wallowing in filth of a pig or a naked, demented savage. Ireland and the people of Ireland wallow in ignorance much in the way that a child or a lunatic wallows in its own filth, smearing the walls with it, grinning and cooing loudly, smearing the walls and itself with its own filth, its own stinking self-made filth. This is definitely how the Irish people are, he said. This is their primary characteristic. Absolutely. Elsewhere in the world you can find qualities in people, both individuals and groups, which correspond to words such as spirit, life-force, vitality, passion and curiosity, but in Ireland you will find no such qualities. No such qualities at all.

Rob Doyle: »John-Paul Finnegan, Paltry Realist«, in: this is the ritual, London, New York: Bloomsbury 2016, S. 1-17; hier S. 1.