Streets of Galway: the challenge of adapting for television Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novels

Abstract

[Abstract] Literature and identity are two ideas intrinsically linked. There is an indivisible relationship between both concepts and neither can advance without the other. Literary manifestations have been worked as a tool for the construction and expression of personal as well as collective identity. In the Irish case, the crime novel is a vital element to reflect Irish identity. This piece of research analyses and contrasts the crime novels The Guards and The Magdalen Martyrs written by Ken Bruen with its expansion into television Jack Taylor on Netflix. As such, the methodology used is firstly based on a socio-historical analysis as well as the study of the development of the Irish crime novel in recent years to, secondly, expose a comparison between written and audiovisual material. The main objective is to establish a framework to understand the differences and similarities about how Irish identity and the main character are relocated in front of the viewers. The idea of this literary analysis is to test whether cinematic art can show identity at the same level as literature.