1st Edition
Transcultural Insights into Contemporary Irish Literature and Society Breaking New Ground
Transcultural Insights into Contemporary Irish Literature and Society examines the transcultural patterns that have been enriching Irish literature since the twentieth century and engages with the ongoing dialogue between contemporary Irish literature and society. Driven by the growing interest in transcultural studies in the humanities, this volume provides an insightful analysis of how Irish literature handles the delicate balance between authenticity and folklore, and uniformisation and diversity in an increasingly globalised world. Following a diachronic approach, the volume includes critical readings of canonical Irish literature as an uncharted exchange of intercultural dialogues. The text also explores the external and internal transcultural traits present in recent Irish literature, and its engagement with social injustice and activism, and discusses location and mobility as vehicles for cultural transfer and the advancement of the women’s movement. A final section also includes an examination of literary expressions of hybridisation, diversity and assimilation to scrutinise negotiations of new transcultural identities. In the light of the compiled contributions, the volume ends with a revisitation of Irish studies in a world in which national identity has become increasingly problematic. This volume presents new insights on the fictional engagement of contemporary Irish literature with political, social and economic issues, and its efforts to accommodate the local and the global, resulting in a re-shaping of national collective imaginaries.
Introduction. María Amor Barros del Río.
Part I. Texts that Blur Frontiers: The Island of Ireland and Beyond
1. Transculturality and the Ghost of Roger Casement in Ulysses, by James Joyce. Mariana Bolfarine.
2. Censorship and the Poetry of Ciaran Carson and Marin Sorescu: A Transcultural Reading. Shannon Kuta Kelly.
3. Transculturality and Seán Dunne’s Translation of Russian Poetry. Stephanie Schwerter.
Part II: Transcultural Writers and Global Entanglements
4. Social Borders and Contact Zones in Leland Bardwell’s Different Kinds of Love. Burcu Gülüm Tekin.
5. Contested Boundaries and Uncharted Entanglements in Evelyn Conlon’s Moving About the Place. Melania Terrazas and María Amor Barros-del Río.
6. Transculturality and Ken Bruen’s Crime Fiction. David M. Clark.
Part III: Irish Social Diversity and Contemporary Literature in Dialogue
7. Transcultural Practices, Teenage Pregnancy and Abortion in Irish Young Adult Literature. Iria Seijas-Pérez.
8. Migrations in Times of Referendums. Transcultural Negotiations in Donal Ryan’s Strange Flowers and Oona Frawley’s Flight: “Why Ireland?... Don’t Go to England”. Margarita Estévez Saá.
9. Negotiating Second-Generation Transcultural Irishness: Susan Ryan’s The King of Lavender Square. Asier Altuna-García de Salazar.
10. Resistance and Activism in Queer and HIV/AIDS Irish Theatre. J. Javier Torres-Fernández.
Coda
11. The Past, the Present and the Wonderful, Worrisome Future: Transculturalism, Memory and Crisis in Irish Studies. Gerry Smyth.
Biography
María Amor Barros-del Río is a Senior Lecturer in English Studies at the University of Burgos (Spain), and Secretary of AEDEI (the Spanish Association for Irish Studies). She has published widely on contemporary Irish literature and her work has been recognised by positive reviews in international journals, grants and awards received to date.
