IX INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

OF THE SPANISH ASSOCIATION FOR IRISH STUDIES

“‘Brandan Rising!'

Irish Identities Inside & Outside the Island ”

  University of La Laguna, 28 April-1 May 2010

 

 

The Spanish Association for Irish Studies (AEDEI) is pleased to announce the organization of its IX International Conference, which will be convened by the English Department at the University of La Laguna .

 

Call for papers:

There is a legend in the Canaries which can be traced back to the early moments of the conquest: that of the isle of San Borondón (or St Brandan), which appears and disappears in the sea, changing from location and form. Situated by 17 th century sailors and cartographers in between the islands of La Palma , La Gomera and El Hierro, it is filled with splendorous gardens, birds and trees, to the point that it could be seen as a correlate of paradise on earth. It is also connected to the pseudo-historical Celtic figure of Abbot Brendan of Clonfert, named “the traveller”, who lived in the 6 th century. In one of his journeys he thread upon a piece of land that proved to be instead a gigantic whale which moved slowly and peacefully through the Atlantic Ocean (as it appears in Navigatio Sancti Brandani , a medieval text dated 10 th /11 th century). This fascinating syncretism shows us how a specific culture or tradition is influenced and transformed by others and how identities are the result of general/personal experiences that transcend the national milieu. All this cultural hybridization surpasses frontiers, borders and limits and enriches the countries involved. Bearing the classic representation of Mother Ireland as a unitary identity in mind, we welcome papers that peep into the ways in which Ireland (and the Irish symbols) are represented, melted, used or abused, hybridized or bastardized, integrated or detached; as well as those who explore the “Other” Irelands that may arise out of the distance, be it spatial and/or ideological, caused by a forced or by a voluntary exile (as James Joyce would put it). Aspects such as the following will also be of primary interest:

 

•  Cultural contamination: Shadows of Ireland in the folklore and traditions of other countries.

•  Cultural Appropriation: the Re-Writing, fake or authentic, of the Irish essence.

•  “Othering” Ireland : The role of dissidence and alternative voices in the Irish canon.

•  ‘ Ireland in mind': Narrating the country from the distance; “Imaginary homelands, Irelands of the mind” (as Salman Rushdie stated, in reference to India ).

 

We invite papers for a twenty-minute delivery, in English or Spanish, which might approach the main theme of the conference from an array of theoretical frameworks and fields of knowledge: linguistic, literary, historical, sociological, gendered, cultural, musical or visual.

 

Confirmed plenary speakers:

•  Anne Fogarty ( University College Dublin )

•  Laura Izarra ( University of Sao Paulo )

 

Confirmed keynote writers:

•  Jamie O'Neill

•  (to be confirmed)

 

Scientific Committee:

•  Ruth Barton ( Trinity College Dublin )

•  Rui Carvalho Homem (U Oporto)

•  Rosa González Casademont (U Barcelona)

•  José Francisco Fernández (U Almería)

•  Luz Mar González Arias (U Oviedo)

•  Patricia Lynch (U Limerick )

•  Marisol Morales Ladrón (U Alcalá)

•  Munira H. Mutran (U Sao Paulo)

•  Inés Praga Terente (U Burgos)

•  Eibhear Walshe (U College Cork )

 

Organising Committee:

•  Aída Díaz Bild

•  Marta González Acosta

•  Mª Luz González Rodríguez

•  Manuel Augusto Hernández Hernández

•  Leonor Ruiz-Ayúcar Bello

 

Organiser:

•  Juan Ignacio Oliva ( jioliva@ull.es )

 

Submission of proposals:

Abstracts of around 250 words should be e-mailed to Juan Ignacio Oliva by Friday 12 March, 2010. For reasons of homogeneity, please add a brief cv (5-10 lines) together with your Institution, and e-mail address. Please, do not send it as an attached document but rather include it in the body of the mail. And do not hesitate to contact the organisation for whatever query you may have.

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