Anglo-Irish Literature

"Bowen’s Court has most commonly been confronted through methodological paradigms stressing its affinity to traditional Irish generic and historiographical conventions. In contrast, this essay reassesses Anglo-Ireland’s contribution to early twentieth-century literature by rereading Elizabeth Bowen’s text within the context of an international cultural and economic world-system. It argues that two historical narratives inform Bowen’s Court: a gothic chronicle of decline and a protoprofessional story of detached expertise. These narratives correspond to two visions of Anglo-Ireland’s transnational position, the first conceiving of the Protestant Ascendancy as neofeudal landlords who transform Irish labor into capitalist wealth, the second characterizing the Anglo-Irish as a cosmopolitan class of professional managers. By regarding these socioeconomic roles as affective dispositions between which her class vacillated, Bowen creates a cyclical history in which the deficiencies of gothic hysteria and detached professionalism supplement each other in a dialectical exchange. Understanding the socioeconomic circumstances underlying Bowen’s Court provides an important insight into how Bowen and fellow Anglo-Irish writers used affect to legitimate their class position after Irish independence, as well as how they were able to envision an Anglo-Irish renaissance.
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This thesis will argue that time is central in Elizabeth Bowen’s Irish fiction because her novels and stories constitute a metafictional account of the dispossessed Anglo-Irish identity in the twentieth century. Within this account, Bowen interrogates the connection between narrative and identity. The relationship of character to setting, and the relationship of character to others, are mediated by the force of time. Because of the problematic nature of Anglo-Irish identity, Bowen drew inspiration from surrealism and warped the experience of time in her fiction in order to disrupt ontological stability in the narrative.

Music and song are both important influences on, and themes in, the poetry of Thomas Kinsella. His poetry also features several individuals associated with music, none more frequently than his close friend, the composer Seán Ó Riada, a central figure in the revival in popularity of Irish traditional music since the 1950s. This paper charts some significant developments in Kinsella's work from the late 1950s, and indeed, intriguing parallels, and shared emphases, apparent in the comments and work of both Kinsella and Ó Riada. For Kinsella, his experience of traditional song - described in his poem 'The Shoals Returning' - preceded the incorporation of Gaelic literature into his poetry while his recurring emphasis on the audience's role in the act of communication echoes his own identification of a central characteristic of the performance of traditional song, or sean-nós, in Irish.

Grounded on three Cuchulain plays, this study explores the evolution of W.B. Yeats’s dramatic style from On Baile’s Strand to The Death of Cuchulain, with At the Hawk’s Well as a middle point. To study these plays in chronological sequence shows Yeats searching possible ways to bring his audience into a deeper awareness of the inner drama of a personality which is the focus of author’s attention. To confront different modes of being in On Baile’s Strand, Yeats combined verse and prose: the Blind Man and the Fool, representing the world of common reality, speak in prose, whereas heroic Cuchulain and Conchobar speak in verse. Later on, to emphasize the psychological symbolism of his plays, Yeats incorporated into At the Hawk’s Well and The Death of Cuchulain the stylized dance and music. The author’s voice mode of mediation in these dramatic texts also changes. In On Baile’s Strand, Yeats uses the descriptive introductory didascaliae to provide the setting and introduce the characters, while in the introductory commentary to At the Hawk’s Well the author rather focuses on production elements (stage arrangement, lighting, musical instruments and the location of masked players) intended to emphasize the physical and psychological division between audience and stage. Besides, he introduces here three Musicians, serving as mediating narrators or presenters whose function is very similar to that of a Greek chorus – to tell the pre-history and provide commentaries. In The Death of Cuchulain, Yeats uses another presentation device – he introduces the figure of the Old Man, directly addressing the audience, whose monologue, along with the following stage directions, raises audience awareness of the fictional nature of theatrical representation. Thus, considering changes in dramatic technique, we can assert that Yeats developed drama theory and practice alike

This article discusses Maria Edgeworth's first novel Castle Rackrent (1800) and focusses on the notion of instability, both on the plot level and the narrative structure of the text. Notions of degeneration and decay abound in the novel. Telling the story of the financial and moral ruin of an Anglo-Irish family and the ultimate loss of their their estate, Castle Rackrent has become the ur-text of the genre of the Anglo-Irish novel.
What sets Castle Rackrent apart from other examples of the genre is its narrative structure. The main part of the text is narrated by Thady Quirk, an old, devoted and appropriately subjective servant. His obvious unreliability as a narrator is juxtaposed with a critical apparatus provided by a fictional editor. Instead of clarifying and structuring Thady's rambling account, however, the Editor also struggles in his role of scholarly commentator. Thus, neither discourse manages to provide a stable and reliable picture of pre-Union Ireland.

Sia la formazione di Tommaso Landolfi che la sua attività di traduttore dal russo, dal francese e dal tedesco hanno stimolato degli studi comparati all'interno di queste tre aree linguistiche. Meno studiato è invece il ruolo che la letteratura anglo-irlandese ha avuto nell'evoluzione artistica dello scrittore di Pico. Attraverso l’accostamento di due testi landolfiani, Favola (1938) e Il principe infelice (1943), ad alcuni racconti brevi di Oscar Wilde pubblicati nelle raccolte The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) e A House of Pomegranates (1891), l’articolo mette in luce il rapporto che la scrittura di Landolfi intrattiene con la poetica dell’autore dublinese.  /  Both Tommaso Landolfi’s education and his translations from Russian, French and German have inspired a number of comparative studies within these three linguistic areas. On the contrary, how Anglo-Irish literature influenced this writer’s artistic evolution has not yet been thoroughly explored. This article aims to explore the relationship between Landolfi and Oscar Wilde by comparing Landolfi’s Favola (1938) and Il principe infelice (1943) with a selection of Wilde’s short stories included in the collections The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891).

АНОТАЦІЯ
Сенчук І.А. Міфопоетика Вільяма Б. Єйтса. – Рукопис.
Дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня кандидата філологічних наук за спеціальністю 10.01.04 – література зарубіжних країн. – Чорноморський державний університет ім. Петра Могили. – Миколаїв, 2012.
Дисертація є першим у вітчизняному літературознавстві системним дослідженням творчості ірландського англомовного письменника, лауреата Нобелівської премії 1923 р. Вільяма Б. Єйтса (1865–1939) з перспективи художньої реконструкції і втілення міфологічних мотивів та образів у його поетиці. На основі міфокритичної методології, що ґрунтується на концепціях К.Ґ. Юнґа, Дж. Кемпбела, М. Еліаде, Н. Фрая, Дж. Фрейзера та ін., в роботі вивчено закономірності введення та функціонування архаїко-міфологічних елементів на рівні сюжетно-структурної організації, оповідної моделі та образної системи його творів. Розглянуто механізми впливу міфо-фольклорної традиції на формування тематики, системи стійких символів та мотивів у художній творчості митця, досліджено його есеїстику і трактат «Візія». Комплексний підхід до вивчення доробку Єйтса доводить, що на всіх етапах творчої еволюції він звертається до міфу як універсальної системи символів, засобу розбудови художнього світу та вияву глибинної природи людської психології. Використання універсальних міфологічних елементів з метою входження у вимір сакрального часу для виявлення онтологічних законів людського буття, структурування тексту за допомогою бінарних опозицій, циклічний принцип організації сюжету та реалізована через ідею театру масок концепція безособовості слугують основними принципами міфомоделювання для ірландського митця.
Ключові слова: міф, міфопоетика, міфологема, архетип, міфотворчість, антиномії, національна ідентичність, постколоніальний дискурс, В.Б. Єйтс.

АННОТАЦИЯ
Сенчук И.А. Мифопоэтика Уильяма Б. Йейтса. – Рукопись.
Диссертация на соискание ученой степени кандидата филологических наук по специальности 10.01.04 – литература зарубежных стран. – Черноморский государственный университет им. Петра Могилы. – Николаев, 2012.
Диссертация является первым в отечественном литературоведении системным исследованием творчества ирландского англоязычного писателя, лауреата Нобелевской премии 1923 г. У.Б. Йейтса (1865–1939) с точки зрения художественной реконструкции и реализации мифологических мотивов и образов в его поэтике. Основываясь на мифокритической методологии, которая базируется на концепциях К.Г. Юнга, Дж. Кемпбела, Н. Фрая, Дж. Фрейзера, М. Элиаде и др., в работе изучены закономерности введения и функционирования архаико-мифологических элементов на уровне сюжетно-структурной организации, повествовательной модели и образной системы его произведений. Рассмотрены механизмы влияния мифо-фольклорной традиции на формирование тематики, системы символов и мотивов в художественном творчестве писателя, исследованы его эссеистика и трактат «Видение». Комплексный подход к изучению наследия Йейтса доказывает, что на всех этапах творческой эволюции он обращается к мифу как универсальной системе символов, средству расширения художественного мира и выявления глубинной сути человеческой психологии. Использование универсальных мифологических элементов с целью вхождения в измерение сакрального времени для выявления онтологических законов человеческого бытия, структурирование текста с помощью бинарных оппозиций, циклический принцип организации сюжета, а также реализованная через идею театра масок концепция безличности служат главными принципами мифомоделирования для ирландского писателя.
Ключевые слова: миф, мифопоэтика, мифологема, архетип, мифотворчество, антиномии, национальная идентичность, постколониальный дискурс, У.Б. Йейтс.

SUMMARY
Senchuk I.A. Mythopoetics of William B. Yeats. – Manuscript.
Thesis for a scholarly Candidate Degree in Philology: specialty 10.01.04 – Literature of Foreign Countries. – Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University. – Mykolayiv, 2012.
The thesis is the first in Ukrainian literary studies systematic research of William B. Yeats’s works. It emphasizes a versatile nature of mythopoetic structure of the author’s writings, tracing the ways of artistic reconstruction and adaptation of mythological elements in Yeats’s poetics. Employing the mythological methodologies of textual analysis, based on theoretical conceptions of C.G. Jung, J. Campbell, M. Eliade, N. Frye, J. Frazer etc., the thesis investigates the mechanisms of introducing the archaic mythological elements into the text and the peculiarities of their functioning on the level of plot-structural organisation, narrative model and personage system of Yeats’s works, which enables to reveal their archetypical nature.
Comprehensive approach to the study of writer’s oeuvre, including the analysis of his poetry, drama and prose of different periods, allows to draw the conclusion that at all stages of his creative evolution the Irish artist employs myth as a universal system of symbols, as a means of creating the fictional world, and a way of revealing the deep nature of human psychology. Analysed writings of Yeats are regarded as myth-making texts: their imagery system comprises symbols and archetypes belonging to mythological, literary or philosophical discourses. The research proves that gradually there changes the nature of mythologism and the ways of reconstructing mythological images and motifs: while at early stage (1890–1900 ies) the mythological material usually serves as a means of Irish reality modelling and as a catalyst of historical memory, the later works (1920–1930 ies) reveal a deeper understanding of myth as a reflection of the collective unconscious and the universal model of being. Myth-making, symbolism and psychologism become the integral categories of artist’s modelling of the fictional world.
The analysis of the architectonics of W.B. Yeats’s plays within the framework of the poetics of myth gives grounds for stating that folklore-mythological structures function as psychological patterns, formal means of dramatic action, conceptual and symbolic schemes. Besides, it reveals the main vector of playwright’s artistic quest: from early symbolic drama («The Countess Cathleen», «The Land of Heart’s Desire», «Deirdre») to heroic mythopoeic drama, employing mask, dance and music and, thus, synthesizing the traditions of the Eastern and Western theatres («At the Hawk’s Well», «The Death of Cuchulain»). The mythopoetic reading of Yeats’s writings enables to reconstruct a set of mythic plots, images and motifs, borrowed from Irish, Biblical, Antic and Eastern mythologies, which serve as a source of his symbols and as structural-meaning components of his works.
As the result of study of myth functioning in Yeats’s works there can be made apparent certain «mythopoeic constants» fulfilling plot-constructing, narrative, structural and stylistic functions: these are certain motifs (the death-resurrection motif, the cyclic motif, the motif of transformation, the motif of initiation), archetypical images (the Hero, the Shadow, the Beloved), and geometrical symbols (circle, gyres, spiral). Synthesizing different mythological systems, cultural traditions and ritual practices, Yeats’s mythological texts create the author’s myth about the world, which is subordinated to the general cyclic development of nature – the phases of the Moon («Vision»). Thus, he appeals to the depth of mythologized consciousness, archetypical constants. Yeats’s works are oriented on the poetics of myth: they are characterized by mythic plot and topos, by symbolism, by the poetics of mythologems, by cyclicity, by leitmotifs, by depiction of reality as mythologized into an emblem of time and its heroes – as the markers of the epoch (the historical time is replaced by the mythical one).
Notwithstanding the cultural openness of Yeats’s work, the theme of Ireland and the wish to join the Irish mythological tradition prevailed in the writer’s oeuvre: the fictional space of the author’s writings, his early ones in particular, is constructed with regard to the Irish mythological or modern pattern, thus it possesses national character. Besides, Yeats strives to model in his poems and dramas the heroic conception of national history, based on Irish mythology and folklore. That very aspect of his work, as well as the reactualisation of Celtic heroes’ images and conscious introduction of Celtic allusions contributed to the activation of «historical memory» and the conceptualisation of Irish identity. All these facts make it possible to read Yeats as a poet of decolonisation due to whom the Irish culture stopped being a part of marginal discourse, and to use as the methodology of text interpretation the paradigms of mythological and postcolonial analysis.
Key words: myth, mythopoetics, mythologem, archetype, myth-making, antinomies, national identity, postcolonial discourse, W.B. Yeats.

У статті досліджено теоретичні аспекти функціонування міфологічних моделей в літературі ХХ ст.: міф розглянуто як інструмент художньої організації матеріалу та як універсальну поетичну мову, за допомогою якої письменники намагаються пояснити сучасність. Механізм міфотворчості вивчено на прикладі творів ірландських письменників – В.Б. Єйтса і Дж. Джойса. Трактуючи міф як синкретичне явище, ірландські митці використовують його як оповідну структуру й спосіб інтелектуалізації.
Ключові слова: міф, міфологізм, міфотворчість, модернізм.

The article studies theoretical aspects of functioning of mythological models in the twentieth-century literature: myth is interpreted as the means of artistic arranging of the material and the universal poetic language able to explain contemporaneity. The mechanism of myth-making is traced through the works of such Irish writers as W.B. Yeats and J. Joyce. Myth functions in their works as a narrative structure and the means of intellectualization.
Key words: myth, mythologism, myth-making, modernism

"The oldest records indicate that the performance of poetry in Gaelic Ireland was normally accompanied by music, providing a point of continuity with past tradition while bolstering a sense of community in the present. Music would also offer, particularly for poets writing in English from the eighteenth century onwards, a perceived authenticity, a connection with an older tradition perceived as being untarnished by linguistic and cultural division.

While providing an innovative analysis of theoretical work in music and literary studies, this book examines how traditional Irish music, including the related song tradition (primarily in Irish), has influenced, and is apparent in, the work of Irish poets. While looking generally at where this influence is evident historically and in contemporary Irish poetry, this work focuses primarily on the work of six poets, three who write in English and three who write primarily in the Irish language: Thomas Kinsella, Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, Gearóid Mac Lochlainn, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Cathal Ó Searcaigh."

У статті досліджено фігури зіставлення опозиційних понять та образів як характерну рису поетики Вільяма Б. Єйтса (1865–1939). Здійснений аналіз віршів зі збірки «Вежа» (1928) доводить, що в творчості Єйтса бінарним опозиціям належить центральне місце поряд з іншими засобами творення образності. Особливу роль відіграють антиномії, в основі яких протиставлення таких понять, як життя і смерть, гармонія і хаос, прекрасне і жахливе, вічне і тимчасове. Фундаментальне значення мають антиномії, що на рівні історико-літературного контексту реалізуються як опозиції митця й оточуючої дійсності, мистецтва й природи, традиції й сучасного письменства, а на рівні соціо-культурного дискурсу – як опозиції Ірландії й Англії.
Ключові слова: антиномії, бінарні опозиції, амбівалентність, дуальність, В.Б. Єйтс.

В статье исследованы фигуры сопоставления оппозиционных понятий и образов как характерную черту поэтики Уильяма Б. Йейтса (1865–1939). Проведенный анализ стихотворений из сборника «Башня» (1928) доказывает, что в творчестве Йейтса бинарным оппозициям принадлежит центральное место наряду с другими средствами конструирования образности. Особое место занимают антиномии, в основе которых противопоставление таких понятий, как жизнь и смерть, гармония и хаос, прекрасное и ужасное, вечное и быстротечное. Фундаментальное значение имеют антиномии, которые на уровне историко-литературного контекста реализуются как оппозиция художника и окружающей действительности, искусства и природы, традиции и современной литературы, а на уровне социо-культурного дискурса – как оппозиция Ирландии и Англии.
Ключевые слова: антиномии, бинарные оппозиции, амбивалентность, дуальность, У.Б. Йейтс.

The article studies the figures of juxtaposition of opposing concepts and images as a characteristic feature of the poetics of William B. Yeats (1865–1939). The analysis of the poems from his collection «The Tower» (1928) proves that, alongside other means of imagery creating, binary oppositions play the main role in Yeats’s oeuvre. Of primary importance are the antinomies which are based on such contrasting concepts as life and death, harmony and chaos, beauty and deformity, eternity and temporality.  Of great significance are antinomies which on the level of historical and literary context are realized as the oppositions of the artist and the reality, the art and the nature, the tradition and the modern writing, while on the level of socio-cultural discourse – as the oppositions of Ireland and England.
Key words: antinomies, binary oppositions, ambivalence, duality, W.B. Yeats.

Статтю присвячено проблемі функціонування в поетиці ранньої творчості В.Б. Єйтса (1865–1939) кельтського міфу як основного джерела міфологічних символів твореної автором художньої реальності. Доведено, що Єйтс не переповідає, а художньо трансформує традиційний міфологічний сюжет, вплітаючи в оповідь мотиви й образи з інших міфологічних джерел, співзвучні світоглядним концепціям письменника.
Ключові слова: міф, кельтська міфо-фольклорна традиція, символ, В.Б. Єйтс.
The article studies the problem of Celtic myth functioning in the poetics of W.B. Yeats’s early works. It considers Celtic myth as the main source of mythic symbols of the author’s artistic world and proves that Yeats did not retell but artistically transformed the traditional mythological plot employing in the narrative those motifs and images from other mythological systems that corresponded with his own outlook.
Key words: myth, Celtic myth-folklore tradition, symbol, W.B. Yeats.

Стаття присвячена проблемі формування національної літературної ідентичності і має на меті довести тезу про те, що художні тексти – зокрема поезії й драми – В.Б. Єйтса вплинули на творення ірландської ідентичності в соціологічному та філософському розумінні цієї категорії. Беручи за основу ірландську національну традицію, Єйтс представляє героїв кельтської міфології як національні ідентифікаційні знаки, що постають в його творчості символічним втіленням ірландських форм думки і рис характеру.
Ключові слова: національна ідентичність, міф, міфологія, міфопоетичний простір, символ, В.Б. Єйтс.
The article focuses on the problem of national literary identity’s construction and aims to prove the statement that William B. Yeats’ literary texts – in particular his poetry and dramas – influenced the shaping of Irish identity in a way that sociology and philosophy treat this notion. Turning to Irish national tradition as the basis of his own works, Yeats represented the heroes of Celtic mythology as nation identity markers which have become the symbolic embodiment of Irish thought and character in his poems and dramas.
Key words: national identity, myth, mythology, mythopoetic space, symbol, W.B. Yeats.

When people are asked about Irish folk music, their first thought usually goes to “Pub drinking songs”, or to the dancers all dressed in green that show rapid dance steps.
However, Irish music is much more: its origins, its development across the centuries and its themes show that this is a fertile field of research and an incredible source of lyrical and musical expression of the Irish population.

Целью этой статьи является прочтение как части постколониального художественного дискурса наследия ирландского англоязычного писателя Уильяма Б. Йейтса (1865-1939), жизнь и творчество которого невозможно отделить от культурной и исторической матрицы – процесса культурной деколонизации Ирландии и формирования ирландской идентичности на рубеже ХIХ-ХХ веков. Кроме того, задача статьи состоит в выделении мотивов этнонационального бытия в его поэтических текстах различных периодов с целью выявления в них структуры противостояния английскому колониализму и создания ирландской идентичности как составной части дискурса национального самосознания, несмотря на то, что написаны они на английском, то есть имперском языке.

Ірина Сенчук
Літературні образи В.Б. Єйтса як національні ідентифікаційні знаки
Стаття присвячена проблемі формування національної літературної ідентичності і має на меті довести тезу про те, що художні тексти – зокрема поезії й драми – В.Б. Єйтса вплинули на творення ірландської ідентичності в соціологічному та філософському розумінні цієї категорії. Беручи за основу ірландську національну традицію, Єйтс представляє героїв кельтської міфології як національні ідентифікаційні знаки, що постають в його творчості символічним втіленням ірландських форм думки і рис характеру.
Ключові слова: національна ідентичність, міф, міфологія, міфопоетичний простір, символ, В.Б. Єйтс.

Ирина Сенчук
Литературные образы У.Б. Йейтса как национальные идентификационные знаки
Статья посвящена проблеме формирования национальной литературной идентичности и ставит своей целью доказать тезис о том, что художественные тексты – в частности, поэзии и драмы – У.Б. Йейтса оказали влияние на определение ирландской идентичности в социологическом и философском понимании этой категории. Используя ирландскую национальную традицию, Йейтс представляет героев кельтской мифологии как национальные идентификационные знаки, которые в его творчестве становятся символическим воплощением ирландских форм мысли и черт характера.
Ключевые слова: национальная идентичность, миф, мифология, мифопоэтическое пространство, символ, У.Б. Йейтс.

Iryna Senchuk
William B. Yeats’ Literary Images as Nation Identity Markers
The article focuses on the problem of national literary identity’s construction and aims to prove the statement that William B. Yeats’ literary texts – in particular his poetry and dramas – influenced the shaping of Irish identity in a way that sociology and philosophy treat this notion. Turning to Irish national tradition as the basis of his own works, Yeats represented the heroes of Celtic mythology as nation identity markers which have become the symbolic embodiment of Irish thought and character in his poems and dramas.
Key words: national identity, myth, mythology, mythopoetic space, symbol, W.B. Yeats.

Published in the American journal, Boundary 2, Feb. 2018.
We are all post-revisionists now. After the centenary commemoration of the insurrection, it is helpful to move beyond a narrow focus on an event itself, and to consider 1916 instead as the political culmination of a longer social and cultural revolution that should be set within a wider international, imperial, and military context. The year 1916 as a political moment gave substance to these  earlier revolutions but stalled rather than furthered the social revolution, as  its legacy was undermined by a counterrevolution. Moreover, 1916 should not be viewed through an exclusively Irish lens: it involved several international actors—the British Empire, the protagonists of World War I, the women’s movement, the Catholic Church, and socialism. Ignited by international as well as national forces, its outcome must also be assessed in terms of the arid postwar settlement that contributed to interwar fascism  and authoritarianism. This essay introduces a wider spatial horizon and a  longer time frame for considering the Rising: it is an exercise in calibrating  the relationship between la longue durée and les eventments

Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh: An Oriental Romance (1817) was an immense commercial success on publication, but its critical reception has been almost entirely negative. Readers from William Hazlitt and W.B. Yeats to Terence Browne have portrayed Lalla Rookh as a trifling and hackneyed piece of Orientalism. Consequently, critics have argued that the parallels between Lalla Rookh's characters and Irish historical figures demonstrate Moore's abandonment of politics and exploitation of his heritage for the sake of light entertainment. This essay contends that Moore deploys two Orientalist voices in Lalla Rookh; one that rehearses the conventions of the genre, and a second that undermines these clichés. Moore catalogues Asian luxuriance, but frames such sequences with commentary that prevents the reader's treatment of the material as escapist pleasure. Lalla Rookh inverts conventional gender-roles of Orientalist literature, and Moore refuses to allow his warriors the triumphant battles we expect. By sophisticating his Orientalism, Moore communicates deep ambivalence concerning Irish politics in his lifetime. Lalla Rookh lacks a clear political message only because Moore cannot identify the means to achieve 'tolerance' and 'liberty'. The poem is contemptuous of the rationale behind imperialism, but troubled by the efficacy of political martyrdom exemplified by Robert Emmet. Far from a work in which Moore draws on Irish history casually to inform light Orientalism, Lalla Rookh articulates grave doubts about the possibility that revolutionary violence can yield progress.

In John McGahern’s 1985 short story “Oldfashioned”, he ably demonstrates why a sensitive, bookish, Catholic young man raised in the repressive, anti-intellectual Irish Free State might be attracted to the way of life being led by the country’s dwindling Church of Ireland population. Throughout “Oldfashioned”, McGahern suggests that Catholics in the young state are, in the main, overly fixated on money-making, gossip, and a prosaic practicality, and that they are suspicious of anything that smacks of foreign influence. By contrast, he implies that those from Anglo-Irish Protestant backgrounds are often more open to learning and aesthetic beauty, and take a much wider view of the world. McGahern also contends in the story, however, that Catholics cannot cross over to an Anglo-Irish cultural milieu without gravely compromising their ties to their own people. As the story demonstrates, the gulf that exists between the two communities is caused primarily by the fact that Anglo-Irish Protestants are frequently open to the cultural and economic ties that Ireland has to Britain, whereas most Irish Catholics are wilfully blind to the significant influence that the neighbouring island has on their lives. By examining frequently-ignored “British” aspects of Irish life and by paying homage to the Anglo-Irish literary tradition throughout the story, McGahern reveals that his perspective on Anglo-Irish Protestants is quite unlike that of other Irish Catholic short story writers publishing during his lifetime (such as Frank O’Connor and Mary Lavin); indeed, McGahern’s “Oldfashioned” can be more easily compared to stories by writers from Church of Ireland backgrounds (such as Elizabeth Bowen and William Trevor) in which they reflect on the long, slow decline of their own community. Also, McGahern’s openness to the British aspects of Ireland’s past and present – as demonstrated by this story and by his writings more generally – indicate that his view of Irish history is influenced by Irish historical revisionism; McGahern differs from many revisionists, however, in that he does not attempt to downplay the trauma and injustice endured by many Irish people under English (later, British) rule.

У статті доведено, що три драми Вільяма Б. Єйтса – «Коло яструбиного джерела», «На Бейловім березі» та «Смерть Кухуліна» – артикулюють різні епізоди міфу про Кухуліна, які модифікуються у відповідності до авторського задуму, і мають стрункий ритуальний сюжет, який відтворює різні етапи й типи ініціації (вікову, воєнну, соціальну і духовну) та супроводжується відповідними «перехідними обрядами»: ритуалами інкорпорації, континуальності і регенерації.
Ключові слова: міф, ритуал, архетип, ініціація, квест, кельтська міфологія, Кухулін, В.Б. Єйтс.
The paper proves that William B. Yeats’s three plays – «At the Hawk’s Well», «On Baile’s Strand», and «The Death of Cuchulain» – articulate different episodes of the Cuchulain myth, though transcontextualised in order to suit the author’s intention, and follow a strict ritualistic plot which reconstructs different stages and types of initiation process (age, warrior, social and spiritual initiations) accompanied by corresponding «transition rites»: the rituals of incorporation, continuality and regeneration.
Key words: myth, ritual, archetype, initiation, quest, Celtic mythology, Cuchulain, W.B. Yeats.

Dracula and Tropic Death: Imagined Maps, Transnational Communities

The history of scholarship surrounding what manner of threat Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula represents to Britain has been a colourful and contested one.  Though that threat is more often consigned to Britain’s east, Britain’s often overlooked colonial interests to her west, particularly those interests in Ireland and the Caribbean, also form part of the cross hatch of the count’s composition.  Though Dracula is traditionally read as a novel which seeks to solidify the integrity of national bounds, Stoker in fact works diligently throughout to map transnational spaces and identities which defy national and ethnic borders.  Eric Walrond’s short story collection Tropic Death (which includes Caribbean strains of vampire mythology), is sketched in similar shades: all the stories collected are haunted by the spectre of British colonisation (though from the perspective of the colony) and the threat posed to any vestiges of Empire by anticolonial assertion. Additionally, Walrond demonstrates an analogous interest in spatial and identity penumbras which resist ethnic/cultural absolutes and push the collection beyond the regionalism of its Caribbean settings. 
My paper suggests that in plotting ever ‘widening gyres’ of geographic co-ordinates, and pausing in ‘cross cultural’/global spaces like Panama and London, Walrond and Stoker ‘imagine [transnational] communities’ in the vein of Benedict Anderson. Both map spaces which speak towards globalising notions of citizenship, identity and belonging made larger by the ever-widening reach of capitalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Review: Folklore and Modern Irish Writing. Edited by Anne Markey and Anne O'Connor. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2013, xi + 250 pp.

What has become of Ireland’s renowned heritage of traditional oral culture? Scéalaíocht, the long tales that were once considered the defining genre of Irish folklore, proved to be too demanding for the sensibilities of modern audiences. By the mid-twentieth century, scéalaithe—the storytellers who specialised in these structurally-complex tales—were only called upon to perform their repertoire for the purpose of documentation. In today’s world of compulsive zapping between ‘apps’ and virtual communication through 140-character ‘tweets’, patient listeners are even harder to come by. And yet, as convincingly demonstrated in the collection of insightful essays edited by Anne Markey and Anne O’Connor, echoes of oral tradition are ubiquitous throughout modern Irish literature.

In 1897, six years after the death of Home Rule leader Charles Stewart Parnell, Anglo-Irish writer, Bram Stoker, put to paper his gothic novel Dracula. This novel is rich with allegorical symbolisms and carries its characters from the proper Victorian atmosphere of England to the decaying and superstitious wilderness of Transylvania. This classical East versus West binary also provides an allegorical space through which Stoker could explore his own internal binaries, being of both English and Irish decent and growing up in a Protestant household in a historically Catholic country. As an Anglo-Irish writer, Dracula serves as a medium by which Stoker could also engage with the cultural nationalism movement that was emerging within Ireland during the nineteenth century that would allow both Protestant and Catholic to unite as a unified cultural group within the United Kingdom.

A history of how the American Conference for Irish Studies championed Irish studies in U.S. Academia, established a network of regional an conferences, and fostered publication.  Included are candid portraits of founders Emmet Larkin and Lawrence McCaffrey, as well as leading figures such as John V. Kelleher, James S. Donnelly, Jr.,Irish and Maureen Murphy.

This paper argues that Wilde's play "Salomé", which he wrote in French, HAS been lost in translation (translation into English, that is). While just one translation, published in 1912, is undoubtedly close to a version which Wilde himself would have liked, it has persistently been ignored for re-publication, and versions currently in print are unsatisfactory. My paper explains what their faults are, and why the 1912 text should not at last be re-published.

In May 1921, Ireland was partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act, which created Northern Ireland. Both sides agreed to a ceasefire on 11 July 1921 and the Irish War of Independence (Cogadh na Saoirse) came to an end. The post-ceasefire talks led to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, as a result of which the Irish Free State was created. Our conference will celebrate the centenary and re-invigorate Celtic Studies at Leipzig University (conducted in the Department of Sorbian Studies) after the Corona crisis.

Translations is a play written by Brian Friel between 1979 and 1980, represented for the first time in Derry during the September of that same year, in a moment when the violence of the Troubles was tearing the country apart. Although the play, starting with its title, has language as a central theme (as the same Friel stressed in Sporadic Diary, 1 June 1979 "[t]he play has to do with language, and only language. And if it becomes overwhelmed by that political element, it is lost"), the past of Ireland, and the present in a certain sense too, are brought to life, their most controversial aspects put on the spotlight, yet not rigorously respecting the historical sources, as Kurt Bullock mentions in his article Possessing Wor(l)ds:

In diesen Abhandlungen stehen die wichtigsten Fakten zuden Literaturen von Irland, und zwar auf Deutsch um diese Fakten einem größeren Publikum leicht zugänglich zu machen. Wertvoll dabei sind die vielen Quellenhinweise, die z.T. auch heute noch Gültigkeit haben. Man bedenke, dass es sich hierbei um eine untererforschte Minderheitenkultur handelt.

This chapter provides an assessment of the classically inflected literary output of Thomas MacDonagh, demonstrating how it generates a tension with the contemporary nativist movement with which MacDonagh also sympathized. The romanticization of the rebel leaders of the 1916 Rising as poets and intellectuals is discussed in the context of their engagement with classical models, and it is suggested that the nationalist narrative of opposition to classical literature in favour of Celtic heritage has obscured the more nuanced reality of figures like MacDonagh who were open to a wider range of cultural influences. The poetry of Catullus, translated by MacDonagh in both published and archival documents, illustrates how classical models enabled him to find a consonance between past and present.

This article, published in vol. 2 no. 2 (Autumn 2018) of the Handel Institute Newsletter (pp. 7–10), attributes an anonymously published poem on Handel’s blindness to Thomas Newburgh (c.1694–1776), an Irish landowner and litterateur who was also a cousin of Newburgh Hamilton, Handel’s literary collaborator. Thomas Newburgh is also of interest as an early member of the Academy of Ancient Music and a lifelong partisan of the aesthetic values espoused by the members of that body. His poem on Handel, which exists in both an earlier (1755) and a later (1769) version, bears eloquent testimony to the equal affection held for this composer’s music by the ‘ancient’ and ‘modern’ camps.

Current explorations of migration in fiction focus on innovative
perspectives, linking memory and trauma with the concepts of exile and
conflict. Personal memories ask for an understanding of what belonging
and identity represent for the Irish; immigration has hybrid and fertile
links to memory studies, psychology and psychoanalysis (Akhtar),  making the immigrant both love and hate his new territory, while returning to the past or homeland to reflect and regain emotional balance. From the focus on ‘the sexy foreigner’ (Beltsiou), we rely on the idea of crisis discussed by León Grinberg and Rebeca Grinberg, Frank Summers’ examination of identity, the place of the modern polis and the variations of the narrative (Phillips), the trans-generational factor (Fitzgerald and Lambkin), the departure seen as an exile (Murray and Said) and the impact of guilt (Wills).
  Such views support an analysis of McGahern’s writing which works as a blend of memories and imagination, the writer highlighting dilemmas, success and failure as ongoing human threads. They are as diverse as the people met by the novelist in his youth, many of them being workers, nurses, entrepreneurs, teachers and writers, both young immigrants in search of a better life and migrants returning to spend their retirement or holidays home.

Ciaran Carson has established a reputation as one of Ireland's most important poetic voices. However, Carson is also an accomplished musician whose work reflects the liminal borderland that has always existed between Irish music and Irish literature. Music is a prominent theme throughout Carson's work with songs and musical allusions frequently a feature of his poems. While music has influenced Carson's work thematically, it has played a formative role in one of the most distinctive features of his poetry until recently - that is his use of the long line. This paper argues that it is even possible in some of his poems to find comparable metres with those found in forms of traditional Irish music. Carson's use of the long line is part of his attempt to recreate what he has called the urgency of traditional Irish music in his work through an audience-aware poetic that attempts to recreate the immediacy of the live sessions Carson has partaken of as a musician. For Carson, the crucial moments of communication and understanding are those shared between the performer and the audience, an audience that can sometimes include fellow performers. However, this conviction is reflected in understandings of musical events one finds in ethnomusicology, an audience-orientated approach increasingly shared by literary theorists.

У статті досліджено фігури зіставлення опозиційних понять та образів як характерну рису поетики Вільяма Б. Єйтса (1865–1939). Здійснений аналіз віршів зі збірки «Вежа» (1928) доводить, що в творчості Єйтса бінарним опозиціям належить центральне місце поряд з іншими засобами творення образності. Особливу роль відіграють антиномії, в основі яких протиставлення таких понять, як життя і смерть, гармонія і хаос, прекрасне і жахливе, вічне і тимчасове. Фундаментальне значення мають антиномії, що на рівні історико-літературного контексту реалізуються як опозиції митця й оточуючої дійсності, мистецтва й природи, традиції й сучасного письменства, а на рівні соціо-культурного дискурсу – як опозиції Ірландії й Англії.
Ключові слова: антиномії, бінарні опозиції, амбівалентність, дуальність, В.Б. Єйтс.
The article studies the figures of juxtaposition of opposing concepts and images as a characteristic feature of the poetics of William B. Yeats (1865–1939). The analysis of the poems from his collection «The Tower» (1928) proves that, alongside other means of imagery creating, binary oppositions play the main role in Yeats’s oeuvre. Of primary importance are the antinomies which are based on such contrasting concepts as life and death, harmony and chaos, beauty and deformity, eternity and temporality.  Of great significance are antinomies which on the level of historical and literary context are realized as the oppositions of the artist and the reality, the art and the nature, the tradition and the modern writing, while on the level of socio-cultural discourse – as the oppositions of Ireland and England.
Key words: antinomies, binary oppositions, ambivalence, duality, W.B. Yeats.