CALL FOR PAPERS

Mapping the Uncanny in 20th Century Irish Literature

International Conference organized in Brest University by the CEIMA researc=
h=20
center (Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires du Monde Anglophone,=20
Universit=E9 de Bretagne Occidentale), 23-25 November 2006:

The phrase " Irish Gothic " may immediately conjure up the names of Maturin=
,=20
Le Fanu and Stoker - all 19th century writers. But it can also be understoo=
d=20
to refer to a troubled relationship with a haunting reality, a relationship=
=20
which is still perceptible, albeit maybe less obvious, in 20th century Iris=
h=20
literature. The persistence of the uncanny in the work of 20th century Iris=
h=20
poets and novelists often goes beyond shared echoes of a mythic and legenda=
ry=20
past. It generates modes of expression hovering between the real and the=20
unreal, humanity and the monstrous, the civilised and the barbaric.
Contemporary Irish writers belong fully to a modernity some of them =20
contributed to building (Joyce, Beckett). They use, for their own ends, aes=
thetics=20
inherited from Gothic visions of terror and liminality or from legendary=20
narratives. Their eerie vacillations can thus become parodical, subversive=20=
or=20
enigmatically elusive (Flann O' Brien, John Banville), maybe in post-colon=
ial=20
mode. These rejuvenated expressions of the uncanny and the fantastic cross=20
barriers of genre to represent an opaque reality that is impossible to gras=
p. Has=20
the fascination for the uncanny become a feature of modern Irish literature=
,=20
and should we agree with Paul Muldoon (To Ireland, I) when he claims that=20
Irish literature is an experience of liminality, far beyond the limits of t=
he=20
fantastic genre ?
The conference will provide the opportunity to map out the extraordinarily=20
diverse and lively territory of the strange in Irish literature. Echoes and=
=20
coincidences, irony and nostalgia, refraction and metamorphosis, all mingle=
 in=20
a mode of representation that is both seductive and sometimes deeply=20
disquieting, contributing to the dynamism of Irish literature today.

This conference is organised together with the CRBC (Centre de recherche=20
Bretonne et Celtique, a CNRS research center), and is supported by the SOFE=
IR=20
(Soci=E9t=E9 Fran=E7aises des Etudes irlandaises).
Submissions of around 300 words must be sent before may 15, 2006 to=20
gaid.girard_at_univ-brest.fr =20

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Received on Fri Apr 21 2006 - 11:07:48 EDT