Ireland: Interfaces and Dialogues

Ranging across the fields of history, literary studies, music studies, theatre and performance studies, film studies, media studies, and the study of material culture, this volume provides a snapshot of some of the most exciting emerging European research on Ireland. The essays gathered here approach Ireland as an interface, a locus that allows intercultural exchange, examining contact zones with other cultures as sites of productive and mutually enriching dialogue. Featuring three sections - Transnational and Intercultural Interactions, Dialogues with the Past, and Hauntings and Traumas - the collection aims at a discussion and further development of interdisciplinary dialogues in Irish studies, treating the frontiers of disciplines, research areas, and methodologies as interfaces that are changing how we understand Ireland past, present, and future. This dimension of the book is enhanced by two extensive interviews with renowned Irish documentary film-makers (Alan Gilsenan, Gillian Marsh, and Pat Collins) and leading performance practitioners and activists (Lian Bell and Maeve Stone).


CONTENTS


Acknowledgments ix
JAMES LITTLE (Charles University, Prague)
Introduction 1


TRANSNATIONAL AND INTERCULTURAL INTERACTIONS


GAVAN TITLEY (Maynooth University / Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki)
The Strange Life of Free Speech Today: A Transnational Reflection on Nationalism, Racism, and Noise 9


MARION BOURDEAU (Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 University)
Transcultural Dialogue through Connection: Storytelling as a Hopeful Interface in Colum McCann's Apeirogon 23


JOCHEN ACHILLES (University of Würzburg)
Synge's Playboy as Intercultural Contact Zone: The Globalization of the Western World 35


DIALOGUES WITH THE PAST: MEMORY, RECOVERY, AND COMMEMORATION


VOJTECH HALAMA (Charles University, Prague)
From Director to Coordinator: The Irish State and the Official Commemoration of the Easter Rising in 1966 and 2016 53