Category Archives: Events 2024-2025

“A Carnivalesque Encyclopedia: Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s Cré na Cille in an International Context”, 29 January 2025 / 29 Eanáir 2025 – Emerging Voices in Modern Languages Lecture write-up / Tuairisc: An Léacht do Ghuthanna Nua sna Nuatheangacha

Tá an phostáil seo mar chuid dár Scéim Tionscnaimh Taighde do 2024-2025.

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

[ENGLISH TEXT PROVIDED BELOW]

Ar Dé Céadaoin 29 Márta, thug an Dr Radvan Markus caint faoina chuid taighde ar an úrscéal Gaelach is cáiliúla, Cré na Cille, a scríobh Máirtín Ó Cadhain in 1949. Is léachtóir sinsearach sa Ghaeilge é an Dr Markus in Ollscoil Shéarlas i bPrág. Saineolaí i litríocht nua-aoiseach na Gaeilge is ea é agus d’aistrigh sé Cré na Cille ó Gaeilge go Seicis.

Clúdach an leagain Sheicise de *Cré na Cille*.
Dearadh: Jan Augusta

Ag tús an léachta, mhínigh an Dr Markus gur dá phobal féin a bhí an Cadhnach ag scríobh ach gur aistríodh Cré na Cille go trí theanga dhéag. Dar le Markus go bhfaightear téamaí uilíocha sa scéal agus gur sin an fáth go bhfuil an scéal so-aistrithe go teangacha eile agus go cultúir eile. Níor foilsíodh leagan Béarla de Chré na Cille le linn bheatha an Chadhnaigh de bharr na ndeacrachtaí a bhí ag an bhfoilsitheoir teacht ar aistritheoir, ach rinneadh dhá aistriúchán Béarla air i ndiaidh a bháis: The Dirty Dust (2015) le hAlan Titley agus The Graveyard Clay (2016) le Liam Mac Con Iomaire agus Tim Robinson. Dúirt Markus go mbunaítear cuid de na haistriúcháin go teangacha eile ar leaganacha Titley agus Mhic Con Iomaire agus Robinson agus n’fheadar cé chomh cruinn is atá na nathanna cainte sna leaganacha sin.

De réir an Dr Markus is scéal ciclipéideach anordúil é Cré na Cille a léiríonn scéal Chonamara, scéal na hÉireann agus scéal na nÉireannach. Ach is scéal sothuighte do léitheoirí ar fud na hEorpa é freisin. Cuireann an scéal dearcadh na dtuathánach in iúl go soiléir don léitheoir: an chúlchaint, an tsíorsáraíocht, agus an t-éad. D’áitigh sé gur carachtar uilíoch í an príomhcharachtar Caitríona Pháidín ar féidir a macasamhla a aimsiú i gcultúir dhomhanda éagsúla, cuir i gcás cultúr na Seice.

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The Suicide Archive: Reading Resistance in the Wake of French Empire, 28 February 2025 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

I recently enjoyed attending a seminar led by Dr Doyle Calhoun, University Assistant Professor of Francophone Postcolonial Studies at the University of Cambridge. This seminar sought to explore a long-overlooked consequence of the violence of French colonialism: suicide. Often uttered in whispered tones, suicide to this day remains a taboo subject, the elephant in the room that people wish to avoid discussing.

However, through his work Dr Calhoun has shone a light on the historical occurrence of suicide as an act of resistance to colonial violence, with specific reference to the time of slavery in the French-speaking Caribbean. Dr Calhoun discussed colonial records as well as contemporary African and Afro-Caribbean media and Senegalese oral history in order to reconstruct a history of the experiences of suicide among enslaved populations and their ancestors. The genesis of Dr Calhoun’s work lies in his finding that suicide was either obscured or omitted entirely in French colonial documents. Given that suicide had not previously been considered in the context of colonial violence, Dr Calhoun’s work offers a groundbreaking historical analysis, demonstrating the sombre paradoxical idea that accounts of suicide offer a fleeting glimpse into the lives of enslaved people.

Dr Calhoun began by unpacking the notion of a ‘suicide archive’; the function it performs and the questions that arise as a result. The suicide archive reflects a scholarly desire to recover stories lost or untold. However, what authority do modern scholars possess to ‘rewrite’ such a contentious part of history? How can scholars elevate the identities of those enslaved peoples lost to suicide whilst maintaining a respectful and reverent attitude regarding their humanity? Is the very act of analysing and elevating these lost identities disrespectful in itself? What if these people did not want to be remembered? Whilst the intention to bring to light these historic injustices is noble, Dr Calhoun crucially emphasised that this work must be carried out in a respectful and delicate manner.

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Amphion and the Dilemmas of Lyric Theory, 30 October 2024 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

On Wednesday 30th October, the Core Disciplinary Research Group in Modern Languages hosted Leah Middlebrook, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish at the University of Oregon. Professor Middlebrook gave a seminar on the findings of her new book, Amphion: Lyre, Poetry and Politics in Modernity (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Cover of Professor Middlebrook’s book, created by University of Chicago Press

Professor Middlebrook opened her presentation with the story of the construction of the city-state of Thebes, as told through the myth of Amphion, who with the playing of his lyre made the stones move to build walls to form this great city. The figure of Amphion has continued to be prominent for his role in music and architecture. He was also key to the development of lyric theory and practice, as Professor Middlebrook demonstrated. However, Amphion was pushed to the academic and cultural periphery in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The idea that Amphion represents is that fragments converge to create something abstract and solid, in particular, creating bulwarks of language. This is best encapsulated according to Professor Middlebrook, in the reference to Luis Pérez Ángel, as cited in the 1602 work Discurso en loor de la poesía (by anonymous Peruvian poet “Clarinda”) whose poems were described there in an explicit Amphionic analogy as “build[ing] […] walls” for a city, a concept that Middlebrook revisited later in the seminar. This came in the form of the image depicting Mercury (Hermes) guiding Amphion as he played the Lyre, an instrument of Hermes’ own invention. The image connotes the idea that while Amphion’s lyre is associated with the civic form that is the polity, it is also a figure that represents the power of lyric to deconstruct. This was a poignant suggestion made by Middlebrook as Thebes was reputed to be a political disaster. It was a city that, although capable of keeping its enemies out, could not, however, deter its own social erosion. Middlebrook described this dynamic as ‘The mercurial Poesis’, since the Theban stones represent both construction and destruction. The lyre animates collective action, but that action can result in ruin.

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The Power of Play: Comparative Caribbean Carnival Cultures from Leeds to Martinique, 16 October 2024 – Seminar write-up