Literature Talk
Cost: £free ¦ Venue: Emerald Club, Southgate Avenue, Crawley, RH10 6HG
“The Shadow from the West: a consideration of the role of Ireland and the Irish in English Literature”
Lecture and talk led by Paul Quinn
This lecture/talk will argue that the changeable relationship between Ireland and Britain is mirrored in the treatment of Ireland in English literature and also informed the treatment of those writers from Ireland who achieved success while writing in English.
Many Irish writers in English have occupied a difficult position; living in the shadow lands between an Irish society into which they do not appear to fit and a British world from which they are often excluded.
By an examination of a range of texts and the biographies of a range of authors, the paper will demonstrate how the variable relationship between the Ireland and her nearest neighbour – suspicious, hostile, mutually dependent – has impacted on English literature.
Dr. Paul Quinn is currently an Associate Tutor at the University of Sussex
The 2007 Crawley Fleadh is organised by the Celtic and Irish Cultural Society with support funding from the Dion Fund.