The tension between adherence to traditional modes of expression, and experimentation has underlain modern Irish literature. Regarded as the epitome of Modernist experimental writing, James Joyce went so far in pushing the boundaries of what constituted prose as to become the object of criticism from such different commentators as Lukács and Pound, both of whom found fault with Joyce for
» Read moreRepresentations of Home in Literatures and Cultures in English. (Dis)locations: The Shifting Thematics of Home. The conference will take place at the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, on the 22nd and 23rd June 2023. The ULICES Representations of Home research project addresses issues of identity and belonging in different geo-political, socio-cultural contexts of countries where English is or
» Read moreThemed issue of RISE: Review of Irish Studies in Europe “Remapping Irish Literary and Cultural Landscapes in the Mid-Twentieth Century” Co-editors: Yen-Chi Wu and Phyllis Boumans (University of Leuven) Critical narratives surrounding mid-twentieth-century Ireland have shifted from isolation and cultural philistinism to a more subtle understanding of the period as a time in which contraction meets expansion. Eve Patten, in
» Read moreRecent scholarship on Synge by Gregory Castle (2001) Sinéad Garrigan Mattar (2004), Hélène Lecossois (2021) and Seán Hewitt (2021) have all examined how J.M. Synge’s reflections on rapid and uneven modernity in Ireland can be seen as a modernist aesthetic. Most recently of all, Hewitt has argued that ‘Synge’s influence on twentieth-century modernism (and on postmodernism) is yet to be
» Read moreThe Presence of the Past: Problematising Temporalities in Irish Studies 9-10 March 2023, University of Lille, France UPDATE: Confirmed plenary speakers Dr. Zélie Asava (independent scholar) Pr. Máiréad Enright (University of Birmingham) Jesse Jones (visual artist). From Gretta Conroy’s recollection of the song “The Lass of Aughrim” in James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” (1914) to the dialogue of corpses
» Read moreEFACIS Conference at Queen’s University Belfast, 24-27 August 2023 ‘Unions and Partitions in Ireland’ Call for Papers EFACIS (European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies) travels to Belfast for the first time in 2023, during a pivotal time for Northern Ireland. The ‘Decade of Centenaries’ (2012-22) in the north has demonstrated that public memories of Ireland’s partition and
» Read moreSamuel Beckett Working Group at IFTR in Accra, Ghana, 24th-28th July 2023 Samuel Beckett’s Drama and the Undoing of Myths of Empire and Imperialism Beckett’s life is a dance between imperialisms, colonialisms and independence struggles. He has been portrayed, if not as a border thinker, at least as an artist for whom borders shaped his life, political thinking and artistic
» Read moreViolence: Repercussion, Resistance and Representation in Irish Society and Culture Universitat de València. 31 May, 1-2 June 2023 Call for Papers As a country under the colonising yoke of the United Kingdom, the island of Ireland has endured many different types of violence over the centuries. The decolonisation of part of it after the 1922 War of Independence and Partition
» Read moreIn the atmosphere of the current global, intersectional crisis, the sustainability of life on the planet has become a most pressing issue. While humans have always been coexistent with nature, it is now imperative to realise that, to quote Thomas Nail, “Climate change is a significant problem that demands radical social change.” As Nail points out, “Some historical actors and
» Read moreSymposium: Monday 27th March, 2023 Museum of Literature Ireland, Dublin Dr Gail McConnell (Queen’s University Belfast) & Dr Karl O’Hanlon (Maynooth University) This symposium sets out to explore mid-century Irish poetry’s rich web of affiliations, reconceptualising the period from Partition to the Troubles by bringing to light forgotten cross-border collaborations, transnational connections, feminist, queer, ecocritical, socialist, and working-class perspectives. Feminist
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