The European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies (EFACIS) conference, ‘Towards 2016: Old and New Irelands’

Panel Subject:
Old and New Marginalities in Contemporary Irish Literature and Film:
The Materiality of Nationalities and Ethnicities

1916 and its events were crucial to both the independence movement’s and Unionists’ visions of Ireland. Despite decisive differences in their imaginations of Ireland and its relationship to Britain and the world, their visions share an invention of a homogeneous people and a story of how it came into being. Both projects needed to “refine its own version of national culture out of the heterogene-ity of popular cultural practices, modernizing and regulating what survives in the form of cultural difference” with the ultimate goal to “produce national subjects” (Lloyd 196).

Postcolonial and gender studies have fruitfully challenged these hegemonic constructions of Irish-ness. However, research has only sparsely addressed the intersection of material contexts (e.g. pov-erty, work or economic conditions) and constructions of nationalities and ethnicities. Our panel wants to bring together papers on contemporary literary and filmic depictions of these materialities and how they are connected with questions of belonging to Irish society as it approaches the year 2016. These questions can include issues of whiteness and the role of body and skin (Are the Irish white by money and who is not part of whiteness, before and after the economic crisis?), immigra-tion (How do literature and film represent the material realities of immigrants in Ireland?), forms of remembering poverty and emigration (Have historiographic depictions changed in the wake of Ire-land’s economic boom and bust?), or changing notions of Irishness and their embodiments in mate-rial contexts (e.g. from traditional peasant life to urban life, from national to global).

References: Lloyd, David. “Counterparts: Dubliners, Masculinity and Temperance Nationalism.” Future Crossings: Literature Between Philosophy and Cultural Studies. Ed. Krzysztof Ziarek and Seamus Deane. Evanston: Northwestern UP, 2000. 193‐220.

Please send a 250-word abstract with a brief biographical note to Prof. Dr. Sarah Heinz (University of Mannheim, Germany) at sarah.heinz@uni-mannheim.de by 1st February 2013.

NB: Only paid-up members of EFACIS are eligible to read papers at this conference. Mem-bership subscriptions for EFACIS may be taken out or renewed with conference registration. Membership of EFACIS is €30 for individuals, €15 for graduate/postgraduate students and membership through institutional affiliation (institutes and research centres). To join EFACIS beforehand, please contact the EFACIS Treasurer, Mark Schreiber, schreiber@anglistik.uni-siegen.de EFACIS 2013 conference delegates may respond to the general conference call or calls for specific panels but may only present one paper at the conference.