Introduction: Irish Literature and the Global Marketplace – Production, Circulation, and Consumption

Ireland, shaped by its colonial history and mass migration, has long been entwined with international networks of labour exchange and cultural transaction. Irish literature is likewise inseparable from the global literary marketplace in which it is produced, distributed, and sustained beyond the country's borders. In response to recent scholarship on the publishing industry, book history, and the creative economy, this special issue explores the largely uncharted terrain of Irish literature in the context of the global marketplace from the nineteenth century to the present day. We evoke the global marketplace in both its symbolic and physical dimensions: as a site formed by infrastructure and business practices; as a space where monetary and cultural capitals are exchanged and accrued; where individual agents navigate institutional forces; and where literature is produced, circulated, and consumed.