Classics and Irish Politics, 1916-2016

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-0-19-886448-6
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 492 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 907 g

This collection addresses how models from ancient Greece and Rome have permeated Irish political discourse in the century since 1916. The 1916 Easter Rising, when Irish nationalists rose up against British imperial forces, became almost instantly mythologized in Irish political memory as a turning point in the nation's history that paved the way for Irish independence. Its centenary has provided a natural point for reflection on Irish politics, and this volume highlights an unexplored element in Irish political discourse, namely its frequent reliance on, reference to, and tensions with classical Greek and Roman models. Topics covered include the reception and rejection of classical culture in Ireland; the politics of Irish language engagement with Greek and Roman models; the intersection of Irish literature with scholarship in Classics and Celtic Studies; the use of classical referents to articulate political inequalities across gender, sexual, and class hierarchies; meditations on the Northern Irish conflict through classical literature; and the political implications of neoclassical material culture in Irish society. As the only country colonized by Britain with a pre-existing indigenous heritage of expertise in classical languages and literature, postcolonial Ireland represents a unique case in the field of classical reception. This book opens a window on a rich and varied dialogue between significant figures in Irish cultural history and the Greek and Roman sources that have inspired them, a dialogue that is firmly rooted in Ireland's historical past and continues to be ever-evolving.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Torrance, Isabelle

O'Rourke, Donncha

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of Illustrations

- List of Contributors

- 1. Classics and Irish Politics: Introduction Isabelle Torrance and Donncha O'Rourke

- I: RECEPTION AND REJECTION OF THE CLASSICS IN IRELAND

- 2. The Use and Abuse of Classics: Thoughts on Empire, Epic, and Language Declan Kiberd

- 3. Greece, Rome, and the Revolutionaries of 1916 Brian McGing

- 4. Classics in the Van of the Irish Revolt: Thomas MacDonagh, 'alien to Athens and Rome?' Eoghan Moloney

- II: LANGUAGE POLITICS

- 5. Translating into Irish from Greek and Latin in the Early Years of the Irish State Síle Ní Mhurchú

- 6. Classics through Irish at University College, Galway, 1931-78 Pádraic Moran

- 7. Dinneen's Irish Virgil Fiachra Mac Góráin

- 8. Classics, Medievalism, and Cultural Politics in Myles na gCopaleen's Cruiskeen Lawn Columns Cillian O'Hogan

- III: BETWEEN SCHOLARSHIP AND LITERATURE

- 9. Abjection and the Irish-Greek Fir Bolg in Aran Island Writing Arabella Currie

- 10. Sinn Féin and Ulysses: Between Professor Robert Mitchell Henry and James Joyce Edith Hall

- 11. Yeats and Oedipus: The Dark Road Chris Morash

- IV: GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND CLASS

- 12. Wilde, Classicism, and Homosexuality in Modern Ireland Eibhear Walshe

- 13. Trojan Women and Irish Sexual Politics, 1920-2015 Isabelle Torrance

- 14. Irish Didos: Empire, Gender, and Class in the Irish Popular Tradition to Frank McGuinness's Carthaginians Siobhán McElduff

- V: CLASSICAL POETRY AND NORTHERN IRELAND

- 15. Elegies for Ireland: W. B. Yeats, Michael Longley, and the Roman Elegists Donncha O'Rourke

- 16. Michael Longley's 'Ceasefire' and the Iliad Maureen Alden

- 17. Post-Ceasefire Antigones and Northern Ireland Isabelle Torrance

- VI: MATERIAL CULTURE AND (DE)COLONIALISM

- 18. Classicism in the Making of Commemorative Monuments in Newly Independent Ireland Judith Hill

- 19. The Politics of Neoclassicism in Belfast and Dublin: A Tale of Two Buildings Suzanne O'Neill

- 20. The Classical Themes of Irish Coinage, 1928-2002: Images from a Usable Past Christine Morris

- 21. Epilogue Richard P. Martin

- Bibliography

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Isabelle Torrance is Professor of Classical Reception at Aarhus University, Denmark. She has published extensively on classical Greek literature, especially Greek tragedy, and its reception. From 2019-2024 she is Principal Investigator on the ERC-funded project Classical Influences and Irish Culture.

Donncha O'Rourke is a Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Edinburgh. He has published extensively on classical literature, especially Roman elegiac and didactic poetry.