IASIL 2018: Extended Call for Papers
Extended Deadline: 17 March 2018
IASIL 2018 – Reimagining Traditions
23-27 July 2018
Radboud University Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Conference team
Dr Marguérite Corporaal
Dr Ruud van den Beuken
Christopher Cusack, MA
Prof Odin Dekkers
Dr Lindsay Janssen
Dr Chris Louttit
Dr Radvan Markus
Dr Frederik Van Dam
Keynotes
Dr Guy Beiner (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Prof Claire Connolly (University College Cork)
Prof Joep Leerssen (University of Amsterdam)
Prof Paige Reynolds (College of the Holy Cross)
Plenary panel on drama by Prof Patrick Lonergan (NUI Galway)
Readings and viewings by
Anne Enright (The Gathering, The Green Road)
Claire Kilroy (All Names Have Been Changed, The Devil I Know)
Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea)
Dr Lillis Ó Laoire (Sean-nós singer, NUI Galway)
Sally Rooney (Conversations with Friends)
Contact
Extended Call for papers
Occasioned by the current Decade of Centenaries, Ireland’s proverbial obsession with cultural traditions has spurred a wide range of scholarship that has offered critical interrogations of monolithic conceptualisations of tradition as well as important reflections on the ways in which Irish traditions have been reimagined time and again. In 2018, we will address the shifting meanings of tradition in a year that marks the centenary of various seminal events in Irish history, such as the controversial introduction of the Military Service Bill as well as the 1918 elections, which led Sinn Féin to proclaim the First Dáil. In literature, too, 1918 was a momentous year, with the publication of literary texts ranging from Terence MacSwiney’s Battle-Cries to James Joyce’s Telemachus episode in The Little Review.
The diversity of such texts demonstrates the centrality of tradition to the Irish (self-) imagination and suggests that tradition should be acknowledged as one of the central themes in Irish and Irish diaspora literature, which is often premised on the question of what it means to be Irish, and what the role of the Irish past should be in the present. The 2018 IASIL conference will offer scholars the opportunity to explore how Irish literature engages with tradition. Using this overarching interpretive category, this conference will explore the ways traditions are invented, reinvented, subverted, and repositioned, facilitating reflections on a strongly differentiated Irish and Irish-diasporic literary landscape.
Possible topics include:
- Literary (re)conceptualisations of folklore and associated folk traditions in Irish literature;
- Representations of authenticity, local colour, the rural, and the regional in Irish literature;
- Literary (re)configurations of contested historical events and traditions;
- Irish literature vis-à-vis vernacular and diasporic traditions;
- Intertextuality and experimentation with literary genres and traditions by Irish writers;
- The modifications of literary traditions (e.g. styles, genres, forms of dissemination) as a result of emigration from Ireland and immigration into Ireland .
- (Re)imaginations and adaptations of literary texts, movements and authors on the Irish screen and stage;
- Technological developments in the transmission of Irish literary traditions, authors and texts;
The organisers invite proposals of 250 words for twenty-minute papers, in English or Irish, for three-paper panels or discussion roundtables. These can be sent to: iasil2018@let.ru.nl. Please also include a brief biographical sketch of max. 50 words. Extended deadline for submission: 17 March 2018.
Registration fee for postgraduates: 35 €
Registration fee, regular: 190 € (this includes lunches)
Scholarships
IASIL is pleased to invite applications for its Postgraduate Scholarship to attend the association’s conference at Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 23-27th July 2018. The Scholarship will cover travel (according to the indicative bands in the travel document), 5 nights student accommodation, registration fee and the conference dinner. Applications, and referee’s form, must both be received by 12th January 2018 and applicants will be informed of the results within six weeks after that date.
Applications (via e-mail attachment of the forms that can be downloaded from http://www.ru.nl/iasil2018/scholarships/) to Shaun Richards, c.s.richards@staffs.ac.uk.