Tag Archives: poetry

Agallaimh le mic léinn iarchéime: Katie McNamee (PhD, Gaeilge) / Postgraduate student interviews: Katie McNamee (PhD, Irish)

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 ALTERNATES WITH IRISH TEXT BELOW]

Inis dom faoi d’aistear leis an Ghaeilge go dtí seo, conas a d’fhoghlaim tú í den chéad uair agus cén fáth gur phioc tú an Ghaeilge mar ábhar ollscoile?

D’fhreastail mé ar mo bhunscoil áitiúil, mar sin thosaigh mé ag foghlaim na Gaeilge nuair a bhí mé ceithre bliana d’aois. Is dócha go bhfuil sé níos fusa teanga a fhoghlaim ar an bhealach sin, nuair a bhíonn tú óg bíonn tú in ann teanga a phiocadh suas go gasta agus ní bhíonn ort dua a chaitheamh lena foghlaim. D’fhreastail mé ar shruth na Gaeilge i gColáiste Chaitríona, Ard Mhacha ina dhiaidh sin, bhí mé in ann staidéar a dhéanamh ar ábhair trí mheán na Gaeilge agus chuidigh sin go mór liom mo chuid scileanna scríbhneoireachta a fhorbairt. Bhí mé iontach paiseanta faoin teanga agus d’éirigh go maith liom sa Ghaeilge ar scoil ach nuair a chríochnaigh mé ar an scoil ní raibh mé cinnte cén sórt post a ba mhaith liom.

Tell me about your journey with the Irish language so far. How you first learned the language and why you chose Irish as a university subject?

I attended my local Irish-medium primary school, which meant that I started learning Irish when I was four years old. I was the first in my family to learn Irish and it was seen as a bit of a risk sending me there as the school had just been established a year earlier, in 2003. But my mother is a teacher and she was very aware of the benefits of bilingualism and the effectiveness of immersive education. I think it was a lot easier for us to learn Irish as children as we were able to pick it up very quickly simply by interacting with our teachers.

I then attended an Irish-medium stream in my secondary school and I was able to do most of my subjects in Irish. I think that writing essays in subjects like history in Irish really helped develop my writing skills. I have always loved the Irish language and it was definitely my favourite subject in school, especially when we started to study poetry. When I finished secondary school, I didn’t know what sort of job I wanted but I knew I wanted to do something with Irish.

Cén t-ábhar dochtúireachta atá idir lámha agat agus cén fáth ar roghnaigh tú an t-ábhar sin?

Tá mé ag caitheamh súil ar an dóigh a dtéann scríbhneoirí na Gaeilge i ngleic le ceisteanna a bhfuil stiogma agus náire ag baint leo. Bím ag plé leis na teicnící éagsúla a bhíonn in úsáid ag scríbhneoirí chun dul i ngleic le ceisteanna cigilteacha ar nós na gnéasachta agus an mheabhairghalar, mar shampla. Díríonn mo chuid taighde ar na straitéisí cosanta éagsúla a mbaintear úsáid astu chun dul i ngleic le hábhair a bheadh róchigilteach aghaidh a thabhairt go díreach orthu.

Bhí suim agam i gcónaí san fhilíocht agus scríobh mé mo thráchtas bunchéime ar fhilíocht Greagóir Uí Dhúill agus thaitin an taighde go mór liom. Nuair a scríobh mé mo thráchtas máistreachta ar shaothar Dhairena Ní Chinnéide, d’éirigh mé níos muiníní mar thaighdeoir agus bhí a fhios agam go raibh mé ag iarraidh dochtúireacht a dhéanamh. Le linn na máistreachta, chuir mé suim sa smaoineamh go mbíonn feidhm theiripeach i gceist leis an fhilíocht in amanna, agus bhí mé ag iarraidh an cheist sin a chíoradh.

What PhD topic are you working on and why did you choose this topic?

My research looks at how Irish-language writers approach sensitive issues in their work that involve stigma and shame. I focus on the various strategies these writers employ in their work to deal with issues such as mental illness or sexuality, for example. This involves analysing works that use distancing strategies to tackle issues that would be too sensitive to discuss head on.

I was always interested in poetry and I decided to write my undergraduate dissertation on the poetry of Gréagóir Ó Dúill. I really enjoyed the research and when I wrote my Masters dissertation on the poetry of Dairena Ní Chinnéide, I gained a lot of confidence as a researcher and I knew that I wanted to do a PhD. During that masters, I became interested in the therapeutic aspect of poetry and I wanted to do further research on that topic.

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José Iglesias de la Casa (1749-1791), a Problematic Pastoral and Satirical Poet, Friday 8 March 2024 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

On Friday 8^th March, Noelia López-Souto (Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife) delivered a seminar on her research into Salamancan poet José Iglesias de la Casa, focusing on his life and poetry in 18^th century Spain.

Noelia López-Souto (photo by Modern Languages CDRG)

To begin her presentation, Dr López-Souto presented us with a portrait of José Iglesias de la Casa, and highlighted how elements included in this portrait represented his life as a priest and poet. However, his dual role of priest and poet posed a problem, as there was sometimes a tension between his religious life and the content of his poetry including, for example, his use of satire. Writing in the 18^th century, at a time which fell between the Golden Age and Romantic period of literature, his work is part of the School of Salamanca, an important Spanish literary group with a new poetry influenced not only by the European Rococo movement but also by traditional Spanish poetry and classical models.

Dr López-Souto highlighted how many of his works were subject to posthumous editing, leading to the modification of controversial sections of the original texts, and their division into volumes to facilitate publishing. Despite this, his Poesías Póstumas (1793) were widely successful, and were included in various collections of classical Spanish poetry. However, these works were later silenced and removed from these publications. Dr López-Souto then explained how she has released a new manuscript with poems by Iglesias. Her research aims to recover the poet’s lost works and make them more widely available.

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Modern Languages CDRG Showcase 2024 / Crossing Borders With Only Our Words: (Translating) Prose and Poetry in the Americas – Keynote write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

Ilana Luna (photo by Modern Languages CDRG)

On Friday 24^th May 2024, Dr Ilana Luna, Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Arizona State University, delivered the keynote speech at the 2024 Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group Showcase on the importance of translation in human understanding of our global neighbours. Her interdisciplinary approach brought together her interest in Latin American studies, feminist writing, poetry and translation. In her paper Dr Luna drew on her extensive experience as a translator (she was shortlisted for the inaugural Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation in 2021 for her edition of Judith Santopietro’s Tiawanaku) and her work as an Associate Editor for Cardboard House Press in Phoenix, Arizona. She noted the importance of small presses to the literary landscape of today especially when it comes to the role they play in supporting texts in translation.

In her paper, as in her book Adapting Gender: Mexican Feminisms from Literature to Film (SUNY Press, 2018), which looks at the historical role of women in the Mexican film industry and how this ruptures stereotypes in the broader socio-political context of Mexico, Dr Luna sought to build bridges by creating conversations among people and texts prompting them to think about what it means to cross borders with only our words.

In her keynote speech, Dr Luna rejected the idea of a pristine, pure translation which as linguists we all grapple with. She described the process of translation as being simultaneously in oneself and outside oneself as it is a radical act of listening and interpretation. Throughout her presentation she drew on many examples of her translation of poetry, including Una vez que la leña se hubiera terminado [Once the firewood had finally burned out] by Cristián Gómez Olivares and Independencia del apátrida [Independence for the stateless] by Mauricio Espinoza. These poems reflect the touching reality of thousands of people who struggle to feel a sense of belonging to a nation because of their borderland experience.

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Postgraduate student interviews: Aislin Kearney (PhD, Spanish)

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2020-2021.

On the 20^th of April I interviewed recent Queen’s PhD graduate Aislin Kearney to discuss her research. In February 2021, Aislin successfully passed her viva for a PhD in Spanish with a thesis entitled ‘’The Ambition of Melancholy: The Aesthetics of Heroism in the Lyric poetry of Juan Boscán and Fernando de Herrera’.

Aislin began her studies at Queen’s as a drama student, where she started a beginner’s course in Spanish. She enjoyed the course so much that she decided to change pathways, majoring in Spanish with a minor in Drama. In her final year she described how she was (begrudgingly) enrolled on a Renaissance module. Unexpectedly, however, the module caught her interest, and when she went on to an MA in Spanish at Queen’s, she devoted her Master’s dissertation, and later PhD, to further examining the poetry of the period.

Portada de *Las obras de Boscán y algunas de Garcilaso de la Vega repartidas en cuatro libros*, Barcelona, Carlos Amorós, 1543.

Her Master’s dissertation focused on the work of Spanish poet Juan Boscán, a lesser-known contemporary of Garcilaso de la Vega. Central to her study of Boscán’s poetry was the emerging idea of melancholic heroism, which Aislin explained was particularly interesting when considering the historical context in which the poetry was being written. During a period in which the country was rising to become somewhat of a superpower, much of its most prominent literature was characterized by lovesick, introspective, and melancholic figures.

Aislin described her PhD as a natural progression from her Master’s research, in which she further explored this melancholic aesthetic, and Spain’s attachment to it, by examining not only the work of Boscán but also his successor, Fernando de Herrera. Aislin explained that her choice in poets was influenced by a number of factors. First, the consecutive periods in which these poets were writing allowed for a better understanding of the historical trajectory of Spanish literature during this time. Second, these two lesser-known poets’ peripheral positions in relation to the extensively studied Garcilaso de le Vega allowed for a more expansive understanding of Spanish poetry of the period. Finally, the fact that both of these poets produced theoretical works alongside poetry, where they discussed their methods and approaches, made them interesting subjects on which to focus research.

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