Irish Modernism
Trinity College Dublin, 19-20 October 2007
Plenary Speakers: Prof. Jean Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania; Dr Joe Cleary, NUI Maynooth; Dr Alex Davis, University College Cork
This conference invites reconsideration of modernism and its legacy
in Ireland. It is exploratory in nature, its aim being to broaden
current debates about the literature of early twentieth-century Ireland and the culture of the post-independence years.
While the organisers invite papers on the leading figures of Irish
modernism, they particularly welcome a re-examination of these writers’ work in relation to their contemporaries in Ireland. Papers are also invited on lesser-known Irish modernists, on writers who reacted against the cultural impact of modernism and on Irish modernism in various cultural forms (art, music, film, photography, theatre or dance). In the past, modernist studies often assumed the incompatibility of modernism and Ireland, juxtaposing an enlightened internationalism with an insular, conservative and repressive nationalist culture. But this is not an image which does service to either side – while denuding Irish modernists of the culture which informs their work, it also caricatures Ireland’s complex cultural dynamics and posits a utopian image of modernism itself. By addressing modernism in early twentieth-century Ireland, this conference will explore new perspectives on the literature of this period that reflect a growing body of work on the contradictory and contested nature of modernism itself.
Suggested topics include:
- The second generation: Beckett, O’Brien, Bowen, Devlin, and others
- Modernism and the Literary Revival
- Internationalism and cultural nationalism
- The emigrant and the exile
- Modernism and Irish-language literature
- Xenophobia and the anti-jazz campaigns
- The reception of modernism in Ireland
- The Irish Exhibition of Living Art
- Modernism and the Irish theatre
- Irish modernist journals and publishing ventures
- The Irish short story
- Irish cinema
- Censorship and modernism
- Populism and elitism
Papers will be of 20 minutes duration and panel proposals are welcomed. Please submit abstracts of 250 words by 15 June 2007 to Carol Taaffe or Edwina Keown at: ctaaffe@tcd.ie, edwinakeown@gmail.com
