Irish Literature

Introduction This is a golden rule of booze marketing. If you're English, Welsh or Scottish then heavy drinking is seedy, depressing and wrong. But if you're Irish it's somehow artistic and glamorous. Alcohol is what drives your burning Celtic soul. It helps you write poetry and ...

Madame Soazick Kerneis a publié dans la livraison 2007 de la Revue internationale des droits de l'antiquité un article intitulé « La vérité du droit. Justice oraculaire et gouvernement impérial dans la Gaule romaine » 1 . Cet article appelle une brève mais claire réponse critique : aucune de ses conclusions ne nous semble devoir être retenue au regard de l'état actuel des connaissances scientifiques sur la Gaule romaine et sur les pratiques administratives, militaires et juridiques de l'empire romain. L'article invente en effet une procédure oraculaire en Gaule romaine sur la base d'une lecture toujours orientée, souvent forcée et parfois gravement erronée des sources disponibles. Tenter de retrouver des procédures coutumières dans l'empire romain est une démarche légitime, elle nécessite cependant, pour fournir des résultats convaincants, une prudence et une acribie scientifique 2 que nous ne retrouvons pas dans son article. Il serait possible de reprendre point par point, voire ligne à ligne, le texte en question pour en relever et corriger les nombreuses erreurs de méthode et les erreurs factuelles. Nous nous contenterons de pointer certains des problèmes les plus importants qui tous touchent au coeur de l'argumentation. Très généralement, l'argumentation pêche d'abord en partant de postulats souvent très critiquables, toujours non démontrés. La

This presentation will talk about six novels written by Sebastian Barry, from The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998) to The Temporary Gentleman (2014), all of them dealing with two Irish families, either the McNultys or the Dunnes. The scope is quite wide, so please forgive a certain degree of simplification and generalisation. My interest in Barry's take on Irish history as it appears in his novels emerged from two issues: 1) My changing perception of Barry's view of Irish history. The first novel I read was The Secret Scripture (2008) and I formed an idea based on Barry's choice of a working-class Presbyterian woman as protagonist, so that I saw this novel as an example of subalternity, of giving voice and identity to the silenced and oppressed. Then I read the other five novels and my opinion changed. 2) It also stemmed from Barry's peculiar and controversial angle on Irish history: he deals with this topic from the viewpoint of West Brits, Castle Catholics, Southern loyalist Catholics and, as said above, a working-class Presbyterian woman. 3) The fact that there are conflicting critical readings of Barry's novels also triggered my interest. The following are two examples of such readings: A) Cullingford has accused Barry of an inappropiate revisionism that seeks "to

This paper examines the Tuatha Dé Danann, the legendary race of deities in Irish mythology, exploring their origins, symbolism, and enduring cultural significance. Often portrayed as supernatural beings of great skill and wisdom, the Tuatha Dé Danann occupy a central place in Celtic myth, embodying themes of transformation, divine sovereignty, and the interplay between the mortal and the divine. This study draws upon historical texts, including the Lebor Gabála Érenn, alongside comparative mythology, archaeology, and modern interpretations to understand how the Tuatha Dé Danann reflect the spiritual worldview of ancient Ireland. It considers their representation as archetypes of knowledge, artistry, and power, as well as their symbolic connection to the natural world. The paper further explores the continuing influence of the Tuatha Dé Danann in literature, art, and contemporary spiritual practice, arguing that they offer a rich framework for understanding Celtic identity, mythic consciousness, and the relationship between myth and lived experience. Ultimately, this work positions the Tuatha Dé Danann not only as figures of myth but as enduring symbols of humanity’s quest for connection to the divine and the mysteries of existence.

“Robert Graves and the Goddess”

Among “my authorities, my authors” (as Norman O. Brown, once put it, speaking of first influences in the life of his own work), Graves was the one with whom my immersion in the Goddess-theme began, back in 2003.

This item appeared as Chapter 4 of “The Modern Debacle” which formed Part One of  my large book “On Nature and the Goddess in Romantic and post-Romantic Literature”.

The reader will find more on Robert Graves in "Myth, Depravity, Impasse" which formed Part Two of  “On Nature and the Goddess in Romantic and post-Romantic Literature”.

There were many scandalous texts in the twentieth century, but a disproportionate number of them were biofictions. Why is this the case? By looking closely at five biographical novels from the twentieth century, and I conclude that the scandal of biofiction is that it can and does reveal what we are at our deepest and most base level of being, thereby debunking the comforting myths that humans have of themselves.

If you were told that a dual-language edition of a book of poetry by a native of Northern Ireland had sold out in Parisian bookshops, you would naturally assume that the poet concerned was Séamus Heaney, though Paul Muldoon, Medhbh McGuckian, Michael Longley et al. might also come to mind. If you were then told that the poet concerned had won an international prize for a translation (not a version) of the poetry of the Persian great Hafez, and that the individual concerned is virtually unknown in Ireland, you would understandably be a little baffled. But such is the case with Derry-born, Donegal-raised Geoffrey Squires (born 1942), author of numerous collections of poetry and poetry translation, among them Drowned Stones (New Writers' Press 1975), Abstract Lyrics and Other Poems (Wild Honey Press 2012), and Hafez: Translations and Interpretations of the Ghazals (Miami University Press 2014). A serious and uncompromising writer, with a deeply philosophical sensibility, drawn to English at its barest and most abstract (comparable in this to Samuel Beckett), Squires' uniqueness has somehow led to his slipping through the nets of readerly and critical awareness in Ireland and Britain.

The Revival of Irish (An Ghaeilge) as a spoken language in Ireland has been a fixed policy of Irish Governments since the foundation of the State in 1922. The policy failed as the population refused to change their language from English even to a small degree. The Government response has been to designate certain of their own employees to use Irish in their work and to direct the translation of all stste documents into Irish.

Frederick the Great is one of the most important biographical novels of the twentieth century, which is strange, since it does not technically exist. In 1905, Mann started work on a biographical novel about the Prussian monarch, and though he never completed it, his character Gustav Aschenbach from "Death in Venice" did. Biofiction is literature that names its protagonist after an actual historical figure, and while there were a few important biographical novels in the nineteenth century, the literary form had its first major surge in the 1920s and 1930s, with publications mainly from many prominent German writers. Mann, I contend, is of crucial importance in biofiction studies because through his writings about Frederick he provides us with a compelling framework for understanding how authors fictionalize a life in order to support the formation of a particular type of polity.

This article argues that peoples from previously colonized nations should uphold an 'inessential' form of identity that is based on an inclusive, cultural approach. Accordingly, they should shun any radical, exclusive approach to identity. What is at stake here is the advocation of 'plurality' and the disavowal of any 'essence' as far as postcolonial identities are concerned. To foster my argument, I will predominantly draw on Derrida's essay "The Politics of Friendship" in order to foreground the 'aporias' as well as the 'essentialism' that inhibit the concept of 'identity'. As well, W. B. Yeats's approach to Irish identity can be a starting point for the exemplification of the inclusive nature and resistance power of cultural identity. Through the implication of Irish traditions, folk tales, beliefs and other cultural traits in his writings, Yeats was able to retrieve an independent and pluralistic Irish identity.

Philology, as the scholarly discipline dedicated to the study of language in written historical sources, represents one of the foundational approaches to understanding human civilization through textual analysis. This comprehensive study examines the evolution of philological methods from ancient Alexandria to contemporary digital humanities, analyzing how the discipline's core components-textual criticism, historical linguistics, paleography, and cultural analysis-contribute to our understanding of linguistic and cultural development. The interdisciplinary nature of modern philology demonstrates its continued relevance in bridging traditional scholarship with technological innovation. Through examination of classical traditions, methodological developments, and contemporary case studies, this paper argues that philology's multifaceted approach provides essential insights into the transmission, preservation, and interpretation of human knowledge across cultures and centuries. The integration of digital technologies with traditional philological methods represents not merely a technological upgrade but a fundamental expansion of the discipline's capacity to illuminate textual relationships and cultural patterns previously inaccessible to scholarly investigation.

Daniel Kehlmann has written a spectacular biographical novel about Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss. In this interview, he discusses his approach to biofiction, focusing specifically on the way the biofictionalist exposes to readers the painful realities about life that they would normally not want to see.

Colm Tóibín is considered one of the best biofictionalists today. His biographical novel about Henry James (The Master) is regarded as a canonical work in biofiction studies. In this interview, I talk with Tóibín about The Magician, his biographical novel about Thomas Mann.

According to folk beliefs, people say that the fairies are out on the night of Samhain: "Deireann na daoine go mbíonn sidheogaí amuigh oidhche Shamhna", in the words of an informant for the Schools' Collection (NFCS 249). And so is this special issue of Estudios Irlandeses entitled "New Perspectives on Irish Folklore"! Far less risky than venturing out on the festival night, but equally audacious, this volume explores the rich traditions of Irish folklore and the various ways it is being/has been reused, repurposed and reinvented. The contributions to this issue explore multiple aspects of folklore today: from the tribulations of the folklore collectors to the reimagining of folklore for the stage, and its reuse in literature and musical compositions. Marina Warner asserts that "Every telling of a myth is a part of that myth: there is no Ur-version, no authentic prototype, no true account" (8). The same could be said of folklore, which is intertwined with mythology on many levels, for that matter. There are multiple variants of a tale type, many interpretations of a folk tune, and numerous versions of a rhyme, which all depend on the circumstances of the transmission, the informant, their locations, and so on. Folklore is a living, multi-faceted process that has as many shapes and forms as there are individuals who engage with it. It has therefore proved quite challenging to define. The Irish word for it, béaloideas, which literally means "oral instruction" (see Ó hÓgáin), embodies the orality which appears to be a common feature of the many attempted definitions. Seán Ó Súilleabháin explains it thus: Folklore is a very comprehensive term to connote the complex of oral traditions of all peoples. It embraces not only their popular beliefs and customs, but also their traditional tales, legends, songs, proverbs, prayers, charms and riddlesin fact, any type of oral literature which has a more or less set form. It also includes local social history or seanchas,… (Irish Folk 8) He further stresses that it represents the "continuation and survival of a very ancient way of thinking" (8). From a socio-historical perspective, folklore is a chain of very diverse links from the past into the present. It is a chain of transmission that connects generations, through a set of beliefs known to a particular community, or a shared store of narratives, or a common most recent contributions to the field is a collection of essays edited by Anne Markey and Anne O'Connor in 2014, Folklore & Modern Irish Writing. While the emphasis has been put on the relationship between folklore and literature in the previous scholarship on the subjectunderstandably so, since storytelling is a major aspect of boththis special issue broadens the horizons by including other disciplines, such as music and performance studies. It also endeavours to be representative of Irish folk culture, since it includes examinations of both English-and Irish-language sources. This issue brings together emerging scholars and renowned experts in the field of folklore and Irish studies, who are all researching developing areas of folklore studies. The new perspectives put forward in this collection thus concern both the authors and their subject matter. In the 2014 collection on folklore and Irish writing, Kelly Fitzgerald remarked the dual quality of contemporary folklore studies as such: Folklore is no longer regarded as a finished product, an object in the field waiting to be collected and analysed. Instead, folklorists see the material they study as being intrinsic to all aspects of life. The process of engaging with the study of folklore is two-fold; it entails documenting the material and understanding its function. (30) In accordance with what Kelly Fitzgerald has noted, the present essays focus not only on the aspects of folklore to be found nowadays, but also on the process at work, its function, origins and consequences. While the regular issue of Estudios Irlandeses comes out each year on Saint Patrick's Day, this special issue is being published at another significant time of the year in Ireland, Oíche Shamhna, the night of Samhain, which was the Celtic festival marking the transition between summer and winter and has become our modern-day Halloween. It was believed that on this night the borders between this world and the Otherworld were blurred, allowing fairies and other supernatural beings into the human realm, as well as enabling mortals to cross over to a world of wonders, willingly or not . In an apt parallel, this issue of the journal builds, or consolidates, bridges between the various disciplines in which folklore lives its first and second lives. This volume was inspired by the work presented at the interdisciplinary conference entitled "New Crops, Old Fields -(Re)Imagining Irish Folklore 2" which was held in Belfast in June 2016. This symposium followed an earlier one which took place in 2013, the proceedings of which were edited by Eamon Byers and Conor Caldwell in 2015. We take this opportunity to thank the other members of the organising committees of both events: Eamon

This chapter explores the evolving representation of LGBTQIA+ identities in Indian web series, analyzing how digital media platforms challenge entrenched gender norms and offer space for marginalized voices. Drawing on social constructivist theories and feminist media studies, the authors examine how gender is shaped through socialization and cultural narratives, and how these narratives are being reimagined in contemporary storytelling. Through critical engagement with select Indian web series, the chapter highlights the ways in which queer characters and themes are portrayed with greater nuance, authenticity, and agency. It underscores the role of digital media in transcending stereotypes, fostering inclusivity, and contributing to broader conversations around gender identity and sexual orientation in India’s socio-cultural landscape.

In this interview, Claudia Rankine clarifies how real people function in her work, specifically Citizen, which features take-from-life figures like Serena Williams. Rankine clarifies how real individuals become a metaphor for a dynamic, specifically one in relation to social, cultural, and linguistic dynamics of injustice and oppression.

This paper examines Paul’s confession in 1 Timothy 1:13—“Even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief” (CSB)—as a lens for understanding both the power of grace and the danger of sanitizing Scripture. Across dozens of translations, Paul consistently describes his former self in terms synonymous with pride: arrogant, insolent, overbearing, violent. The underlying Greek term hybristēs further underscores his posture as insolently abusive and contemptuously prideful. Far from diminishing his witness, Paul’s open admission magnifies God’s mercy, providing the Church with a blueprint of confession, mercy, and transformation. This study argues that acknowledging biblical figures’ flaws is not heresy but honesty, and that attempts to downplay or erase Paul’s pride weaken the very testimony that demonstrates God’s radical grace. Using recent debates—such as criticisms of Prophetess Tiphani Montgomery for noting Paul’s pride—this paper highlights how rejecting Paul’s own words exposes modern interpreters’ arrogance and reveals a dangerous tendency to defend reputation over truth. Ultimately, the “scales” that fell from Paul’s eyes symbolize more than physical healing; they testify to the breaking of pride by the power of grace.

In the Trojan Women, Euripides includes in Cassandra’s over-rationalized speech some predictions about Ulysses’ nostos that are considered “the earliest epitome we have of the Odyssey” (Paley 1872). In this paper, we intend to provide a close reading of the verses 427-444, sometimes athetized by the editors, in order to explore the multi-faceted modalities to refer to the Homeric poems in tragedy (Alaux 2007).
In Cassandra’s prophecies, conducive to a meta-literary discourse (Pillinger 2019), the Homeric material is subjected to a new narrative whose content, well-known to the Athenian audience, may be less significant in itself than the shape it receives: Cassandra cuts in the Homeric narrative, selects specific episodes (mainly VIII-XI) and arrange them not chronologically but gradually. To conclude the accumulation of misfortunes, the prophetess does not qualify the hero as πολύτροπος but as “δύστηνος” (v. 431) in order to present him as the archetype of the tragic hero overwhelmed by sufferings.
I will defend the idea that this adjective is the proof of Cassandra’s rhetoric strategy in which she rejects on her enemy the miserability she denies to her mother Hecuba. More than a literary game with the epic references, the dissonance Euripides introduces between the Homeric model and its paradoxical treatment by the prophetess hints at one of the main thematic threads of the play: the commemorative power of poetry and its ability to transfigure any fact into its contrary (tragic sufferings into songs of glory and vice-versa). These prophecies challenge the Homeric vulgate to the point where tragedy, more than a lamentation about a former epic past, emerges as an alternative reading of the events. What if the account of the Odyssey was an imposture?

Nella Topographia Hibernica e nell’Expugnatio Hibernica, Giraldo Cambrense esplora l’incontro/scontro culturale e militare tra inglesi e irlandesi. Se da un lato, descrive il popolo irlandese come barbaro e selvaggio, dall’altro, delinea un progetto di assimi lazione politica da parte della corona inglese anche attraverso l’utilizzo di un ciclo il lustrativo autoriale – intessuto di mostra e mirabilia e fortemente connesso alla corpo reità dei soggetti – atto a riflettere la visione medievale dell’alterità e legittimare l’occu pazione coloniale. Giraldo crea una “scala di alterità” che contrappone il mondo civilizzato inglese ai barbari irlandesi, evidenziando il controllo militare e la conoscenza etnografica come strumenti di dominio politico.

Sally Rooney's primary concerns are Marxist critiques of neoliberal values related to private property and wealth acquisition in a purely capitalist economy. However, her bourgeois novel form has been contended for perpetuating a postfeminist purview of feminine sensibilities. The research marks a stark departure from these evaluations and establishes that Rooney's women are self-conscious and constantly pitted against an elaborate structure of kyriarchy. The protagonist of her novel, Frances, becomes the mouthpiece of ideological disillusionment and liminality by existing in a space of constantly 'becoming'. These illustrations have been substantiated by drawing on the theoretical precepts of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, which promulgate that 'ideological schizophrenia' is the only way to transcend the panopticons of the concentric circles of false consciousness permeating the sociocultural milieu of a society. They revert to primal desiring-machines and an affective 'Body without Organs' that subverts any form of structural configurations within its loci.

There really is a map. I found it when I was cleaning out my father’s Berkeley Studio just after he died. In among his birth certificate and his pension card was a photocopied map: Dublin blocked out in thin black lines. He had drawn three stars upon it in blue ink. One star at the South Anne Street house where he was born and reared from 1929 until 1943. Another at Eleven Ely Place where, from 1963 to 1969, he was married to my mother and the father to six kids. The last star is on 59 Pembroke Row where he’d lived in a dilapidated Georgian with his second family from 1975 to 1978. The buildings are not far from each other. Pembroke Row is round the corner from Ely Place, is a ten minute walk to South Anne Street where the merchant class dwelt above their shops when he was a boy.
For fifty years, my father had resided in all the dirty corners of Dublin, in dozens of flats, squats, kips. If he’d marked every place he’d dossed down in, this map would be riddled with stars.
Why these three places, these three stars? It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen, communicating so much in its simplicity. These were sites he cared for, that held stories, that were homes. He’d marked these particular dwellings to think on. To run the old days through his mind. He could leap into his map, take an imaginary stroll along Dublin streets, pop in and out of kitchens, visiting his families, visiting himself at different points in time. This star map changed me utterly.

Critically: • Resolutions: • (1) The Convention, considering the incontestable superiority of articulation over signs in restoring the deaf-mute to society and giving him a fuller knowledge of language, declares that the oral method should be preferred to that of signs in education and the instruction of deaf-mutes. • (2) The Convention, considering that the simultaneous use of articulation and signs has the disadvantage of injuring articulation and lip-reading and the precision of ideas, declares that the pure oral method should be preferred.

In 1887, the Times of India welcomed a new production to the Gaiety Theatre in Bombay, "a Parsee adaptation of Boucicault's COLLEEN BAWN." Bholi Jan (Innocent Belle), the Gujarati version of The Colleen Bawn, was greeted enthusiastically (Times of India, February 12 and 19, 1887). Bawn had long been a hit in India, but the site was now the "native stage," the Indian-language sphere of hybrid theatrical practices and large commercial companies. With this crossover, Boucicault's work was recast. Transformed into Parsi theater, Bawn ushered in a different kind of cultural production, which was to have a long afterlife in South Asian popular culture.

Globalization and climate change have been extreme in causing environmental crises and cultural responses relating to the world today, which have led to eco-criticism as an essential structure of looking at literature in the times of the Anthropocene. The paper argues that climate fiction, postcolonial ecologies and indigenous worldviews provide an opportunity to discuss the role of environmental imagination in the postcolonial world in shaping modern narratives. It examines the textual strategies that creators use to develop ecological awareness, embody anxieties about climate change, and accuse humanity of anthropocentricity, through the analysis of chosen pieces of literature: speculative fiction and realist novels. In the argument presented through the study it is postulated that literature does not only reflect ecological crises but also engages in building ethical paradigms that lead to sustainable thinking. Based on the view of eco-criticism, the study helps understand how literary works are used as cultural means to imagine more ecologically friendly futures and discourage the systems that allow exploitation and extend the dialogue about climate change to the rest of the society. Finally, the paper frames 21 st-century writing as a place of opposing, envisioning, and supporting the larger trajectory toward environmental justice and sustainability.

This essay follows how three different texts (one prose, and two poems) each reflect the narrative arc of St. Paul's struggle with sin and his overcoming of it. It begins by following a parallel between the experience of Paul's conversion in the biblical book of Acts with the anagnorisis of Charlotte Bronte's protagonist, Jane Eyre. I compare how both literary agents wrestle with inner conflicts and arrive to a united conclusion that where humankind fails, God always represents the solution. Following this, in light of analysing Paul's religious experience, I turn to Seamus Heaney's poem 'Miracle.' In this, the effect of sin, interpreted as death and suffering is underscored in the same way that Paul underscores it in his letters. Finally, I conclude by deepening an understanding of Paul's anthropology in analysing Edwin Muir's poem, 'Adam's Dream.'

This work explores the prophecies recited by the Morrigan in the second battle of Moytura. These prophecies are recited in rosc, an irish poetic structure characterized by its short verses and alliteration. It is speculated that the origin behind this poetic structure is intertwined with the irish ritual imbas forosnai. These poems are found in the second battle of Moytura, Cath Maige Tuired, an episode of Irish mythology that presents the Tuátha Dé Danann as victorious in the battle against the oppressive Fomorians. All of these poems are attributed to the Morrigan, the Great Queen, goddess of sovereignty, war and destruction. Her sisters are Macha and Badb and, together, the three goddesses form the triad of war goddesses known in irish mythology as the “Morrigna”. In the first poem, “Kings Arise to the Battle”, the Morrigan incites the Tuátha Dé Danann to fight with all their strength. It is a poem recited during the battle, a practice that has historical roots within the martial rituals of the Celts, being considered a prophecy since the Tuátha Dé Danann do win the war. The second poem, “Peace Prophecy”, is recited by Badb (who, in this myth, is synchronized with the Morrigan) when the war is over. The goddess foreshadows a world full of abundance, fertility and balance. Finally, the third poem, “I do not see a World of the Living”, which is recited immediately after the second, presents a world that is cruel, sterile and hostile. The three poems illustrate the medieval Irish society, picturing its wishes, fears and values, and represent the Celtic three-fold cosmology of birth, death and rebirth.

The English Journals - Volume III
The Life & Travels of Mary Baroness de Bode addressed to her beloved sister Catherine Kynnersley - Texte manuscrit en anglais en 3 volumes, propriété de ses descendants par son fils aîné Clement, les frères Charles et Francis Cazalet.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet who known for his unique style of writing and newness towards the modern era of English Literature. Also recognized as the bridge between 19th century literary traditions and 20th century modernist movements, he played a big role in shaping modern literature. Though he began his career with romantic and mystical poetry inspired by traditional themes like Irish folklore, Hinduism and Symbolism, Yeats gradually evolved into a poet whose themes, style, and vision anticipated many of the complex concerns of Modernism and Romanticism. Yeats lived during a time of great transformation between 19th and 20th century – wars, political struggles and a growing sense of uncertainly in society. His poetry reflects all this, he questioned old beliefs and explored new ways of thinking, which is what makes him a forerunner of the modern age. Yeats's journey is no less revolutionary, his early immersion in Romanticism, his flirtation with mysticism, his engagement with Irish nationalism, and his ultimate stylistic evolution from lyricism to symbolic abstraction mark him as a unique bridge between the old and the new. In this sense, he can be viewed as a ‘Precursor of the modern age’.

This paper studies Neel Mukherjee’s novel A State of Freedom (2017) through the lenses of Subaltern Studies, postcolonial theory. It argues that Mukherjee’s fragmented narrative centers the lives of marginalized characters—such as Milly, Lakshman, Renu, and Ramlal—to critique the structural constraints on India’s ‘subaltern’ populations. Each section of the novel foregrounds a different subaltern subject, challenging conventional narrative hierarchies. Through interconnected storylines, Mukherjee illustrates how caste, class, gender and globalizing neoliberal forces converge to deny dignity and agency, aligning with Gramsci’s notion of subaltern fragmentation and Spivak’s question ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’. The analysis draws on theorists including Ranajit Guha (Subaltern historiography), Edward Said and Dipesh Chakrabarty (colonial legacies), and feminist scholars (Crenshaw’s intersectionality, Mohanty on “Third World women”, and Scott on everyday resistance).

lt has almost become a staple in Eugene O'Neill's criticism to refer to his play The Hairy Apeas one of the first in the United States to welcome European Expressionism and a clear evidence of the existence of a Expressionist phase in its author's career. A few critics have argued however that The Hairy Ape presents too many Naturalistic elements to be considered even experimental. Both extremes are argued against in this article, which proves that Expressionism and Naturalism coexist in the play and tries to disc!ose the way in which that happens. Finally, sorne reasons are offered as to why O'Neill decided to combine both theatre styles in such a daring manner.

Edith Wharton's The Age oflrmocence (1920) presents two different types of exile, enacted in the female characters of Ellen Olenska and May Welland. The former's is a literal exile, enforced on her by the rigidity of social norms and her own yeaming for freedom. She is a representative of proto-feminism and with slight diñerences can be met on a number of literaiy works from the epoch. May Welland is, due to her singularity, a much more complex and challenging character. Hers is a voluntary self-exile stemming from a need to survive in a tremendously exacting environment and leading her to deny herself and strive to become what others expect her to be. Edith Wharton's technique in the depiction of May Welland is far from explicit and the true nature of the character remains considerably hidden throughout the novel. This work tries to evidence that most critical readings -not to mention those of general readersof May Welland have been simplistic, distorted and too determined by Newland Archer's view of her. Wharton's character should however prompt a reflection on the harshness of an environment in which some women could not añbrd being themselves. El movimiento naturalista de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX se caracteriza por presentar personajes que por seguir su propia inclinación y rebelarse de ese modo contra los valores y expectativas de su entorno terminan siendo destruidos. Ejemplos de ello serían las protagonistas de Maggie (1893) de Stephen Grane y The House of Mirth (1905) de Edith Wharton. El naturalismo suele también ocuparse de los vencedores en esa fatídica lucha por la supervivencia, los más adaptados, aunque por lo general sin prestar demasiada atención a la forma en que se ha llegado a esa supuesta adaptación o el sufrimiento y esfuerzo que ello puede haber requerido. En The Age of Innocence (1920), sin embargo, Wharton dedica la mayor parte de la novela a dos supervivientes, que dejando a un lado sus inclinaciones individuales, consiguen cumplir a la perfección con lo que todos á su alrededor esperan de ellos. Se trata del protagonista, Newland Archer, y de su prometida y después esposa, May Welland. En el caso del primero de ellos, la autora hace partícipe al lector en todo momentohasta casi rozar lo melodramático-de la dificultad que ello le supone y que incluye, entre otras cosas, renunciar a la persona amada. Con May Welland, la estrategia narrativa es distinta, pues no se explican abiertamente sus conflictos y se obliga al lector a reconstruir -mediante ciertas claves diseminadas por la novela-una situación tan dramática como la de Newland y mucho más conmovedora. La obra de Edith Wharton (1862-1937) ha sido considerada durante mucho tiempo como un perfecto ejemplo de novela femenina burguesa. Ello explica que haya estado sumida durante bastante tiempo en un relativo olvido crítico, que sólo recientemente parece haber

It is only because literature is probably the most appropriate means to express, without falsifying them, the indeterminacy and the complexity of moral life that it can teach us something essential in this domain. To take up Wittgenstein's phrase, it can help us to watch and to see many more things than what ordinary life would allow us to watch and to see. Coetzee's three 'Jesus' fictions are not realist novels, although he has not made up a new world. Here, his true South, with complex histories of colonization, is difficult to identify. Historical contingencies do not frame his ethical enquiries. At the core we find self-reflexive linguistic questions. Here I follow Pippin (2021) and Mulhall (2022) in investigating the trilogy's philosophical commitment, with particular attention to the way Coetzee manages to make literature a device for the human search for meaning and understanding, starting from the particular jurisdiction that it realizes in the very act of serving language.

This paper studies Neel Mukherjee's novel A State of Freedom (2017) through the lenses of Subaltern Studies, postcolonial theory. It argues that Mukherjee's fragmented narrative centers the lives of marginalized characters-such as Milly, Lakshman, Renu, and Ramlal-to critique the structural constraints on India's 'subaltern' populations. Each section of the novel foregrounds a different subaltern subject, challenging conventional narrative hierarchies. Through interconnected storylines, Mukherjee illustrates how caste, class, gender and globalizing neoliberal forces converge to deny dignity and agency, aligning with Gramsci's notion of subaltern fragmentation and Spivak's question 'Can the Subaltern Speak?'. The analysis draws on theorists including Ranajit Guha (Subaltern historiography), Edward Said and Dipesh Chakrabarty (colonial legacies), and feminist scholars (Crenshaw's intersectionality, Mohanty on "Third World women", and Scott on everyday resistance).

The poetry of Jibanananda Das shows a remarkable similarity with that of W.B. Yeats when one considers, apart from other thematic and aesthetic resemblances, the unique tendencies of both when it comes to the creation of archetypal symbols and the use of images. Regarding the creation of images and the power of imagination, Yeats signifies, through the power of imagination, the ancient and the Surreal; Jibanananda uses the same to explain 'kalpanamanisha' ('imaginative sensibility'). Both Yeats's and Jibanananda's affinity for symbols reveal a unique mobility in their respective poetical canonsone which distinctly contributes towards the ushering in of modernism in their own respective poetic traditions while imbibing possibilities of greater meaning and contextual expansion of the same by blending uniquely the traditional, the mythical and the familiar. This article shall, therefore, attempt a comparative study of Jibanananda and Yeats as regards their conception and treatment of archetypal symbols. Beginning with a short introduction which observes the similarities in the poetic deliberations of the two, this article will try to locate the poetic consciousness of Jibanananda as well as Yeats as regards their relationship with and renditions of symbolism. Finally, this article will examine the unique relationship of archetypal symbols with the poetic canons of Jibanananda and Yeats.

Poetry is a compromise or even a series of compromises. The poet’s approach is personal; he does not aim at an objective, scientific truth. But at the same time, he is not a solipsist. Poetry is not a mere reflection or a mere imitation of life but it has an essential relationship to life. If poetry is good because of its self-coherence as poetry, at the same time it cannot be good if it does not correspond in a certain way to life. An analysis of this concept of ‘life’ reveals another compromise. A poem, though an individual thing, derives from and has to be referred back to life, which means, in the first instance, the life of the poet. In the same way the life of the poet, though also an individual thing derives from and has to be referred back to the life outside him. However, the principal objective of this paper is to understand and analyze W.B. Yeats’ worldview through his poetry. The focused poems here are “Byzantium” and “Leda and the Swan”, which will help us to see the world from Yeats’ point of view.

This article addresses a self-contained episode in the Third Recension of Togail Troí (c. 1150-1250?), concerned with the story of the man-slaying Women of Lemnos. It is shown that the author of that recension began with a passage of Togail na Tebe, the Middle Irish version of Statius's Thebaid, consisting of a long, autobiographical speech by Hypsipyle, foremost of the Women. He rewrote this speech as a third-person narrative and inserted it at the appropriate point in Togail Troí's account of the preliminaries to the Trojan Wars. The episode has hitherto remained unpublished and little studied. A critical edition is presented here, based chiefly on the two well-known manuscripts of the Third Recension of Togail Troí (D, K), but also examining a variant version found in a little-known fragment of the fifteenth or sixteenth century (N). The Edition and Translation are followed by a Discussion of the adaptation of the Togail na Tebe material for its new narrative context, and a commentary tracing the process of rewriting and adaptation that underlies the text. It is argued that the opening section of the source passage from Togail na Tebe was at first imperfectly adapted for its new context, producing the text witnessed by N, and that this was then revised to produce the more smoothly flowing version seen in D and K. In the Commentary, changes, improvements and occasional errors in transmission and rewriting are examined, and the Togail Troí versions are compared with that in Togail na Tebe and its ultimate source in Statius. Additionally, it is shown that at certain points Togail Troí manuscripts contain readings that preserve the original Irish translation of Statius more accurately than do the surviving manuscripts of Togail na Tebe itself.

Detail from a manuscript of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy written in an Irish hand about 1140 ce, possibly at Glendalough. © Firenze, Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Plut. 78. 19, fol. 4r, reproduced by permission of the Biblioteca Laurenziana, Firenze

Целью данной статьи является характеристика аксиологического компонента романа «Вулфхолл» («Wolf Hall», 2009) Х. Мантел. Вначале проводится сравнительный анализ романа «Вулфхолл» с «Айвенго» («Ivanhoe»,
1819) В. Скотта и утверждаются преимущество современного романа в способности погружения читателя в историческое прошлое и интеллектуализация жанра исторического романа. В статье делается вывод о сосуществовании трех систем ценностей в исследуемом произведении: средневековых ценностей, ценностей Ренессанса и анахроничных ценностей современности. Центром системы ценностей Средневековья является любовь к Богу, которая реализуется через институты католической церкви, феодализма и монархии и отражается в католической интерпретации Библии. Ренессансная система ценностей передается с помощью новой интерпретации Библии У. Тиндейлом, гуманности и рациональности главного героя романа. Современная система ценностей проявляется через манеру повествования и связана с моментом написания романа: персонажи описаны
с глубоким психологизмом, отмечается «гендерная асимметрия» и неактуальность дихотомии добра и зла.

Critical attempts to establish the origins of the Bildungsroman as a significant genre in the history of English-language fiction have in recent years become contentious, for reasons that are now well-documented. The term itself did not appear in literary discourse in Britain until over a century after its first usage in Germany by Karl von Morgenstern in 1803. Though retrospectively viewed as a characteristic form of the nineteenth-century novel, it was not discussed by name in a British context before the beginning of the twentieth century, entering the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1910. Even when taking into account recognizable English synonyms or proximate terms of nineteenth-century provenance, such as the 'novel of apprenticeship' or 'self-culture', the pursuit of an originary source for the fictional narratives associated with these terms can be deemed problematic. As Susan Fraiman and others have argued, the widespread assumption that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795-6) represents an urtext of the genre from which 'an English family of texts [is] seen to descend' can have the effect of distorting or erasing alternative genealogies of eighteenth and nineteenth century fiction in English, particularly in relation to issues of gender. 2 Eschewing the Goethean model of the Bildungsroman, Fraiman traces an alternative tradition of English 'novels of development' produced by women writers back to Frances Burney in the 1770s. Lorna Ellis, in contrast, accepts the critical utility of the German term in describing the work of British female writers but goes even further back into the mideighteenth century to find its earliest exponent (Eliza Haywood). 3 For the main chapter on the English Bildungsroman in his well-known study of the European genre, The Way of the World (1987), Franco Moretti chose to include Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749)and William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794) from the eighteenth century alongside Walter Scott's Waverley (1814), and the more familiar examples of Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë. More strikingly, Moretti credits an early-nineteenth century English writer as a cofounder of the genre: the Bildungsroman, he declares, 'originates with Goethe and Jane Austen'. Unlike her contemporary Scott, Austen is not known to have read Wilhelm Meister (which was not translated into English until after her death), so Moretti's statement proposes a parallel cross-cultural generic formation, rather than a direct lineage of cultural transmission. Other theorists of the Bildungsroman, however, have differentiated eighteenth and early-nineteenth century English novelists from the genre, situating them within a broader taxonomy of novelistic forms. Mikhail Bakhtin, most notably, cites Tom Jones as an example of 'biographical' fiction in which the hero remains a fundamentally static figure , unaffected by the 'assimilation of historical time' characteristic of the Bildungsroman. 5 Scott's Waverley, commonly known as the text which instigated the nineteenth-century enthusiasm for the 'historical novel', as well as taking the form of a biographical narrative of individual development, would seem to fit the criteria for the Bildungsroman outlined by Bakhtin and Georg Lukács better, but it is less clear where the novels of Austen sit within this broader taxonomic field. With the exception of Mansfield Park (1814), as Thomas Jeffers has noted, none of Austen's novels present an extended narrative of self-formation. Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1815), the two novels most commonly cited as Bildungsromane, contain narratives of transformative self-reflection within a much narrower framework, focussing on a relatively discrete sequence of biographical time. Yet Fanny Price, the heroine of Mansfield Park, is, for some readers, notoriously deficient in the narrative agency with which Austen's other female protagonists have been credited. Recently, Laura Green has distinguished 'novels of courtship' in the Austen-Burney tradition from 'novels of formation' in the more modern sense, though she too is sceptical of the term 'Bildungsroman' in the context of 'English and Anglophone literary tradition '. 8 Despite these associated difficulties and disagreements, there remains a strong case for foregrounding the pivotal significance of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister in any account of the nineteenth-century Bildungsroman in Britain. 'Novels of development' written in English in a variety of forms predate or independently coalesce with the late-eighteenth century German Bildungsroman -some of which have indeed been cited as influences on Goethe himselfbut if we wish to understand the term 'Bildungsroman' as a more nuanced, differentiated category within the broader narrative field of nineteenth-century fiction Goethe's text still presents a key point of access. Almost all the major nineteenth-century British novelists, from Scott in the first two decades to Thomas Hardy in the 1890s, were familiar with Wilhelm Meister, and some with other important examples of the German Enlightenment and Romantic theorization of Bildung. Some popular writers of fiction such as Scott, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and George Eliot had an extensive knowledge of, and scholarly interest in, German literature, while others, such as Dickens and Charlotte Brontë, had access to translated editions. While it is not the primary aim of this chapter to trace the influence of the German Bildungsroman on the development of nineteenth-century British fiction, such an undertaking need not be confined to seemingly marginal or obscure novels of the period. The list of Victorian novels which directly invoke or appropriate Wilhelm Meister, or which through varying layers of mediation reconfigure specific formal and thematic elements of the Goethean Bildungsroman, includes some of the most recognizable titles, as well as a multitude of less familiar ones (plus some which were widely-known during the period, but whose profile has subsequently diminished). The following discussion encompasses the wide range of nineteenth-century British fiction that can be read in relation to the generic model of the Bildungsroman, recognizing, of course, that like all acts of generic classification the model to which individual texts are aligned is, to some extent, an abstraction composed of a range of elements which are rarely reproduced in their entirety in any concrete instance. At

The twentieth volume of the Polish Journal of English Studies, the first of the second decade of our activities. List of contents. The Duality of Clowns in W. B. Yeats’s “The Mask”– Who is the ‘I’?
Lala A. Mahmood, Larin J. Kharib, Sara S. Hamatofiq, Kauthar F. Jamal, Shajwan N. Fatah, Iraq,                                                                               
Early Parodies of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Stories: 
Charles C. Rothwell’s “Adventures of Sherwood Hoakes: 
An Interrupted Honeymoon”(1892) and A. Dewar Willock’s 
“A Study in Red” (1892) as Criticism and Homage
Urszula Żoczek, University of Wrocław, Poland                                                   
A Recipe for Parody: Mark Crick’s “Clafoutis Grandmère à la Virginia
Woolf” as a Pastiche and Parody of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse
Natalia Szechnicka, University of Wrocław, Poland                                               
Cathy Ames as a Femme Fatale in East of Eden: Steinbeck and Kazan
Tomasz Śledź, Kazimierz Wielki University, Bydgoszcz, Poland                                 
Myth-Making Modern Cities: Paris and London in Jacques Tati’s 
Playtime and Penelope Lively’s City of the Mind
Samira Sasani, School of Literature and Humanities, Shiraz University, Iran                   
My, You Have a Way of Making Me Do Things I Don’t Normally Do.”
The Examination of the Narrative (Un)Reliability of Joe Goldberg
from You by Caroline Kepnes
Paula Sadkowska, Catholic University of Lublin, Poland                                         
The Myth of the American Dream in Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers
Barbara Meilak, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland                                       
The Construction of Authority in the Old English Judith
Jacek Olesiejko, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland                               
Guyanne Wilson, Michael Westphal, eds., 2023. 
New Englishes, New Methods (Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins
Publishing Company)
Monika Konert-Panek, University of Warsaw, Poland                                         
Petr Chalupský and Tereza Topolovská, 2024. 
Of Spaces and Ideas: The Novels of Jim Crace and Simon Mawer 
(Prague: Karolinum Press)
Bożena Kucała, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland,                                     
Jerzy Jarniewicz, 2024. Frotaż. Szkice o literaturze anglojęzycznej
(Wrocław: Ossolineum)
Krzysztof Fordoński, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland                                 
Krzysztof Puławski. 2025. Stworzone w przekładzie. 
Opowieść o tłumaczeniu poezji [Created in Translation. A Story About Translating Poetry]. Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Ewa Rajewska, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland                                 
The 32nd Annual Conference of the Polish Association
for the Study of English, Warsaw, 27-29 June 2024
Wojciech Drąg, University of Wrocław, Poland

This paper focuses on the potentialities of mapping urban spaces through a ‘consciously uncontrolled’ action of walking, observing, recording an unknown place. In particular, the paper is a reflective narrative of a particular technique developed by some postgraduate students at Sheffield School of Architecture to interpret Debord’s theory of drifting as a qualitative tool for mapping the “unexpected” within the post-industrial neighbourhood of Holbeck, in Leeds. Located south to the river Aire, Holbeck, is known for being the centre of industrial revolution in Leeds. In the late 18th century, Holbeck developed from a small village into an important industrial site with a large number of mills and foundries manufacturing flax-based textiles. The prosperity however, did not last for long and from the late 19th century Holbeck saw a decline in heavy industries and consequently experienced a huge decrease in its population, becoming a ‘wasteland’. Within a range of investigative spatia...

This paper explores W.B. Yeats's "A Prayer for My Daughter" and Jasimuddin's "Joler Konya", focusing on the portrayal of paternal concern and the inherent ironies of life reflected in both poems with a structural analysis. At the root of these works is the father's anxiety about his daughter's future in a harsh and unforgiving world. Both poets emphasise the desire for virtue over superficial beauty and the importance of preserving innocence. In Yeats's poem, the tone reflects his disillusionment with his lost love, Maud Gonne, and how this influences the ideals he wishes to pass on to his daughter, revealing the contradictions and complexities of paternal love and guidance. In contrast, "Joler Konya" expresses the poet's urgent concern for his daughter's beauty and way of life, celebrating the traditional rural aesthetics and values. Both poems critique materialistic notions of beauty, favouring a connection to cultural and moral values. The paper examines these themes through a structural lens, analysing how each poet's style reinforces their message and emotional depth, while also incorporating irony and epigrammatic elements to enrich their portrayals.