Thèses sur le sujet « Irish literature (Celtic) »

Early Irish literature, other Celtic literatures and later folklore are rich with descriptions of personal contact with the sacred. The Otherworld, or spiritual aspect of reality, is a constant and vivid presence in the legends. This reality does not seem distant, but rather, always ready to break through into physical reality, transforming those who encounter it. In earlier times, druids, and sometimes heroes and saints, seem to function fully as shamans as described by Mircea Eliade in his definitive work on shamanism, undertaking spirit journeys into the Otherworld. and returning with gifts for their people. In later times, when overtly primal shamanic practice was increasingly repressed, personal contact with the sacred became in many cases less defined and more individual. However, we continue to see contact with the Otherworld in folklore. hagiography and the mystical experiences fostered by later spiritual movements. While scholars such as Carey, Nagy and Melia have recognised and explored some of the shamanic themes present in Early Irish literature, the full complex of these themes, along with their implications for our understanding of Early Irish and Celtic culture, have not yet been hlly examined. A holistic approach to these difficult issues indicates that one must not just dissect the texts themselves for meaning, but take into account the research of archaeologists, anthropologists, psychologists and neuroscientists as well as Celticists. By doing so, I hope to show not only the evidence for Celtic shamanism itself, but suggest possible fbnctions of shamanic experience in Early Irish, and more broadly, Celtic culture, Because shamanic traditions typically have a clear cosmology and ideas about spiritual growth, I have also considered if the early Irish and, more broadly, the Celts may have had such a cosmology and ideas of harmonising with the sacred they came into such intense contact with.

This thesis is an essay in the phenomenology of religion; it is not primarily a study of the literature or history of early Ireland. This thesis investigates the content and meaning of the early Irish people's language and expression as it relates to music. The culture being investigated is that of early medieval Ireland, up to and including the twelfth century. The focus of the thesis is on a Collection of music references extracted by this author from selected literature; the Collection itself is presented here as an independent Appendix volume to the main body of the thesis. The specific literature selected for this thesis is found in eight major categories of Old and Middle Irish texts: 1) tales from the Mythological Cycle; 2) Dindshenchas (Place-lore poems); 3) the tales and sagas from the Ulster Cycle; 4) the tales from the Cycles of the Kings literature; 5) the Immrama ("Voyage") literature; 6) tales from the Acallam na Senorach; 7) early Irish poetry; and 8) the early Irish saints' Lives. This thesis is divided into five major chapters--Performers, Instruments, Effects, Places, and Times. The Performers chapter examines the "supernatural" performers, the mundane performers, and those performers portrayed with some degree of Otherworld influence(s). The Instruments chapter discusses the various instruments portryed in this literature, as well as how they might relate to the Otherworld. The Effects chapter examines all of the various effects of music mentioned in the references from the Collection, and discusses how they relate to the "supernatural". The Places and Times chapters discuss the "supernatural'', liminal, and mundane places and times regarding music, as referred to in the references from the Collection. Comparative material is used from other world cultures, in each chapter, for illustratory purposes only. Arguing that music is a means by which the early Irish people test their world and register its realities, this thesis discovers in this select literature on music, an unbroken continuity between the otherworldly and the mundane, experienced and expressed through early Irish music, and this is common to both overtly primal and overtly Christian contexts.

The Irish throughout their tumultuous history immigrated not only to North America but across Latin America, particularly to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. Ireland and many of these Latin American countries share a close yet under-examined relationship, inasmuch as they are predominantly Catholic, post-colonial, hybrid populations with fraught immigrant experiences abroad and long histories of resisting Anglo-centric imperialism at home. More particularly, the peoples of these nations engage intimately with the dead (as shown, for example, by the Mexican Day of the Dead and Celtic roots of Halloween), and the dead appear frequently in literature from these countries that takes up issues of colonialism and anti-colonial struggles. The dead can function as repositories for forgotten history and allies in counter-imperial struggle; these roles become particularly important in the 20th century, wherein the forces of economic modernization have rushed to erase the memories of the dead. From the speech of the dead in the prose works of Juan Rulfo, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Samuel Beckett, and Carlos Fuentes, to the anticolonial poetics of William Butler Yeats and Julia de Burgos, this thesis examines how these two regions have, both in parallel and in concert, utilized the dead to bolster various nationalistic projects. This dissertation also explores patterns of Irish/Latin American literary citation and influence, tracing, for example, how Jorge Luis Borges’s responded to James Joyce, or how a scene from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is re-enacted in the novels of Flann O’Brien and Gabriel García Márquez. This project contributes to comparative approaches to Irish literary and modernist studies, improves our nascent understanding of how the Irish and Latin Americans have interacted throughout their overlapping histories, and expands our comprehension of how the dead have been and continue to be utilized across the developing world to resist economic neo-colonialism.

Statistics show that the world wide web is dominated by a few widely spoken languages. However, in quieter corners of the web, clusters of minority language speakers can be found interacting and sharing content. This study is the first to compare three such clusters of Irish language social media users. Social network analysis of the most active public sites of interaction through Irish – the Irish language blogosphere, the Irish language Twittersphere and a popular Irish language Facebook group – reveals unique networks of individuals communicating through Irish in unique and innovative ways. Firstly, it describes the members and their activity, and the size and structure of the networks they share. Then through focused discourse analysis of the core prolific users in each network it describes how the language has been adapted to computer-mediated communication. This study found that the largest networks of Irish speakers comprised between 150-300 regular participants each. Most members were adults, male, and lived in towns and cities outside of the language’s traditional heartland. Moreover, each group shared one common trait: though scattered geographically, through regular online interaction between core members they behave like communities. They were found to have shared histories, norms and customs, and self-awareness that their groups were unique. Furthermore, core users had adapted the language in new and innovative ways through their online discourse. This study is the first comprehensive audit of who is using the Irish language socially on the web, where they are forming networks online, and how they are adapting the language to online discourse. It makes a unique contribution in re-imagining what constitutes an Irish language community in the context of the Network Society. In the process, it contributes to the growing body of sociolinguistic research into globalisation and local identity on the web.

This thesis is a postcolonial study of the work of Padraic O Conaire. From the great surge of the Cultural Renaissance to the reconsolidating of conservative forces under the Free State, O Conaire's career encapsulates the defining period of modern Ireland. As the Introduction discusses, this thesis sites his work centrally in that revolutionary era, with O Conaire influenced by the great writers of European Realism who made a profound critique of their own societies with their central focus on the lived experience of the individual. Instead of the modern alienation of his characters, or the radicalism of the author's own politics, both of which comprise the most prominent strands in his critical portrayal to date, O Conaire is seen to make that necessary synthesis between the psychological and the political aspects as a creative writer. Though rooted in the historical experience of the race, the anti-authoritarian project of Postcolonialism is defined as an ongoing challenge in an age of global capitalism and the working through of the psycho-cultural effects of colonization. Noting their emphasis on the biographical element, the Literature Review examines the main contemporary full-length critical studies of 6 Conaire: P6.draic 6 Conaire - Deorai (1994) by Padraigin Riggs which investigates the themes of alienation and exile in the life and the work; Padraic 6 Conaire - Sceal a Bheatha (1995) by Eibhlin Ni Chionnaith which unearths a wealth of biographical information to finally create a portrait of a bohemian Romantic; and Reabhloid Phadraic Ui Chonaire (2007) by Aindrias O Cathasaigh, which directs its attention on O Conaire's journalism and his articulation of a revolutionary socialism; and Saoirse Anama Ui Chonaire (1984) by Tomas O Broin's which is a monograph on O Conaire's one novel Deoraiocht and argues for its socialist expressionism based on the author's lived experience. Three significant short studies out of the wide range of essays on the writer are then reviewed: 'Padraic O Conaire' by Seosamh Mac Grianna (1936) which portrays O Conaire as a heroic literary pioneer for all his faults, 'Padraic 6 Conaire agus Cearta an Duine' by Declan Kiberd (1983) which emphasizes his eccentric individualism and his socialism, and 'An tOrsceal Readach III' by Alan Titley (1991) which claims a special kind of literary realism for Deoraiocht. The remaining works of the Literature Review develop and deepen the postcolonial basis of this thesis, being significant studies in the international and in the Irish context: The Colonizer and the Colonized by the Tunisian writer AlbeIt Memmi, which is a piercing sociological and psychological exposure of the phenomenon of colonization; Tren bhFearann Breac - an Dilaithriu Culruir agus Nualitriocht na Gaeilge Ie Mairin Nic Eoin which applies a wide range of postcolonial theorizing to modern Irish language literature; and 'Decolonizing the Mind: Language and Literature in Ireland' by Gearoid Denvir which is a polemical account of the psycho-cultural aspect of colonization and also treats of the marginalization of modern Irish language and literature. The Review includes a brief examination of the work which inspired the title of Denvir's essay, namely Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The first chapter of this thesis discusses Deoraiocht as a powerful anti -colonial novel, a monologue of rebellion located in the heart of empire. The second chapter examines important statements from O Conaire's journalistic output concerning the role of the writer in society, and about Irish society itself in the troubled period from 1917-1921, in a critical context that compares the basic radicalism of the modern Russian writer with the Gaelic literary tradition. The third chapter considers O Conaire's five plays, from their original inspiration in Douglas Hyde's plays about traditional Gaeltacht society, to their development of the comic hero of European theatre. The selection of his short stories in the fourth chapter reflects the arc of O Conaire's opus, from Paidin Mhaire, the tragic victim of the colonial system, to the subversive comedy of Fearfeasa Mac Feasa with his challenge to conventional officialdom. The Conclusion looks forward as well as back in that O Conaire as a postcolonial writer straddled the official British colony founded on political, social and economic repression and the official Free State with its emerging conservative, bourgeois and religious ethos. Just like the great modernist pioneer in Irish writing in English, James Joyce, who was born in the same month as O Conaire, his own work is seen to be intimately bound up with the project of decolonization and with the realization of the individual as the embodiment of a changed society. Also, like the dispossessed Gaelic poet of the seventeenth century and the modern underground writer of the Soviet State, O Conaire's work is shown as retaining from beginning to end the integrity of the outsider committed to the truth of individual expression against the ideological control of the dominant institutions of pre- and post-imperial Irish society. If we Irish want the genuine freedom that O Conaire advocated, then we can discover the hidden foundations of our contemporary society in his work, in which there is a truthful reflection of, and liberating insight into, the period that formed today's Ireland.

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Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq
Heavy chains had been keeping Ireland attached to the English colonial system. During seven hundred years, Ireland had been fighting for its political, military, financial and religious independence. The nationalists, arising from the process of seeking for sovereignty, had idealized on the historical roots and on the necessary weaponry for their national project to succeed. This path, nonetheless, pervaded the Celts, the people that became the nation’s spirit for the national movement. Thus, the myths, tales and ancient Gaulish folk tales were freshend. Literature became one of the most important pillars for Ireland’s independence enterprise. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) founds the Celtic Twilight characterized by a group that started, in short, the presentation of the Irish people, by emphasizing to the Celtic inheritance over culture though drama. By this time, Yeats writes The Countess Cathleen, a play that opens both Celtic Twilight and Abbey Theater, in Ireland. The plot presents the conflicts of a community devasted by starvation. It spins around a heroic character, Countless Cathleen, the action evolves with the appeal for the nationalist sacrifice. By offering her soul towards the country people, Cathleen evokes pagan and Christian myths, in a plot that inspires historical facts and political ideals. In this scenario, our work has for its purpose to investigate the building of Cathleen as an Irish heroin, and the folkloric tales used by Yeats during this learning process of this main character for the play, during the action. For this, we turn to theorists like Propp (1984), Sperber (2009), Campbell (2007), Bettelheim (2012). Due to the Romantic aesthetics overlaid Yeat’s plot, we also had to carry a historical and theoretical analysis on Romantic movement main aspects, especially the movement that brought to life medieval feelings through the Medieval Revival during the nineteenth century. The analysis is built as symbolic and allegorical literature reflecting , respectively , the engagement of the work to the Celtic folklore and the political purpose of the nationalist struggle waged by Yeats
Pesadas correntes mantinham a Irlanda presa ao sistema colonial inglês. Durante setecentos anos, os irlandeses lutaram por sua independência política, militar, financeira e religiosa. Os nacionalistas, resultado do processo de busca pela soberania, idealizaram nas raízes históricas do país as armas necessárias para que seu projeto nacional tivesse êxito. Esse caminho, porém, perpassava pelos Celtas, povo que se tornou para o movimento nacionalista o espírito da nação. Sendo assim, os mitos, os contos e as lendas folclóricas ancestrais gaulesas foram revividas. A literatura se tornou um dos pilares mais importes no projeto de independência da Irlanda. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) funda a Renascença Celta que ficou caracterizada como um grupo que começou de forma concisa a representação do povo irlandês, dando ênfase à herança céltica na cultura através da dramaturgia. Com isso, Yeats escreve The Countess Cathleen, peça do dramaturgo que inaugura a Renascença Celta e o Abbey Theater, na Irlanda. A trama encena os conflitos de uma comunidade devastada pela fome. Centralizada em uma personagem heróica, a Condessa Cathleen, a ação desenvolve-se como apelo ao sacrifício nacionalista. Ao ofertar sua alma em prol dos camponeses, Cathleen evoca mitos pagãos e cristãos, numa trama que mimetiza fatos históricos e ideais políticos. Diante desse cenário, nosso trabalho teve como proposta investigar a construção de Cathleen enquanto heroína irlandesa e como os contos folclóricos Celtas foram utilizados por Yeats nesse processo de aprendizado da personagem central da peça durante a ação. Para isso, nos voltamos a teóricos como Propp (1984), Sperber (2009), Campbell (2007), Bettelheim (2012). Devido à estética Romântica que reveste a trama de Yeats, tivemos ainda que fazer uma análise histórica e teórica dos principais pontos Romantismo, principalmente o movimento que reviveu no século XIX os valores e sentimentos medievais através do Medieval Revival. A análise constrói-se, como uma literatura simbólica e alegórica refletindo, respectivamente, o débito da obra ao folclore Celta e ao propósito político da luta nacionalista travada por Yeats.

This thesis considers the chase and the equestrian motifs on Early Medieval Pictish and Irish sculpture which have not generally been studied on their own. These motifs deserve the concentration of study in their own rights. We endeavour to bring out, more clearly than hitherto, the history, iconography and ramifications of the chase and the equestrian motifs. In order to do so, the role of these motifs in Celtic literary tradition will be considered thereby heightening our understanding of the literary significance of these images within an Early Medieval Celtic context. Moreover, such art historical criticism as exists tends to categorize the chase and equestrian figures as simply secular (ie. non-Christian) in nature. It is argued that these motifs cannot be so simply described. Part of our purpose will be to show that the chase and equestrian motifs can meaningfully be regarded as simultaneously Christian and secular, literal and symbolic, local and universal in their statements. Their iconographies are multi-layered and complex, distinguished by an ambivalent interplay of sacred and secular symbolism at once thematically complementary and multivalent in meaning. Further, it is argued that the visual and literary evidence are mutually illuminating. It is not argued that this is always and necessarily the case, although we believe it usually to be so. We will consider how this is true in the context of the Irish crosses and Pictish cross-slabs which depict both hunting and riding vignettes. Of course, we shall attempt to demonstrate how and why the mutual artistic-literary illumination works.

This dissertation contains a critical edition of the early Irish tale Aided Derbforgaill “the violent death of Derbforgaill”. It includes an introduction discussing the main thematic components of the tale as well as intertextuality, transmission and manuscript relationship. The edition is accompanied by transcripts from the three manuscript copies of the tale and textual notes. Aided Derbforgaill is an Ulster Cycle tale and belongs to a category of tales describing the death of prominent heroes, rarely heroines, in early Irish literature. Arriving in the shape of a bird to mate with the greatest of all heroes, Cú Chulainn, Derbforgaill is refused by Cú Chulainn on account of him having sucked her blood. Forced to enter a urination competition between women, and upon winning this, Derbforgaill is mutilated by the other competitors. The tale ends with two poems lamenting the death of Derbforgaill. This very short tale is complex, not only in its subject matter, but in the elliptical language of the poetry. Thematically the tale is a combination of very common motifs found elsewhere in early Irish literature, such as the Otherworld, metamorphosis and the love of someone unseen, and some rare motifs that are almost unique to this tale, such as blood sucking and the urination competition. The text also have clear sexual overtones.

“The Wanderings of Oisin” was published in 1889 and is one of W.B Yeats’ earliest poems and is the main focus for this essay. The poem depicts the duality of Irish identity and the transition from one system of belief to another. This essay will demonstrate that W.B Yeats uses Celtic and Catholic mythology in “The Wanderings of Oisin” in order to reflect his contemporary Ireland. The essay begins with a deifintion and a discussion about the words 'myth' and 'mythical method'. The second part of the essay describes the depiction of Celtic and Catholic mythology in “The Wanderings of Oisin” and the connection to late nineteenth century Ireland. The first section presents information on Irish nineteenth-century history and the second section focuses on five parallels to Yeats' contemporary society: The vitality of Celtic mythological beings, the depiction of Oisin as mediator, the sense of loss regarding Irish culture, the juxtaposition of Celtic and Catholic and the ambivalence that follows in a society where two conflicting mythologies coexist and compete. The main body of arguments discusses these parallels between Yeats’ portrayal of Celtic mythology and nineteenth century Ireland and shows that "The Wanderings of Oisin" reflects Yeats' contemporary Irish society.

A Star Called Henry (1999), do escritor irlandês Roddy Doyle (1958-), é o primeiro livro da trilogia The Last Roundup, cujo protagonista é Henry Smart. Este nasce em Dublin no início do século XX e desempenha papel importante na luta pela independência da Irlanda. Juntamente com os Irish Volunteers, Smart combate no Levante de Páscoa de 1916, auxilia na escrita da declaração de independência do país e torna-se soldado do Irish Republican Army (IRA) durante a Guerra da Independência (1919-1921). Henry é um herói, mas não do tipo clássico: filho de um assassino de aluguel e de uma adolescente pobre, Smart é ladrão desde os primeiros anos de vida e, durante suas lutas pela Irlanda, afirma não estar interessado no ideal nacionalista, uma vez que luta por dinheiro, comida e reconhecimento. Vivendo às margens da sociedade, Henry Smart desconstrói uma aura romântica em torno do Levante, da Guerra da Independência e dos heróis nacionalistas. O ponto de partida desta pesquisa é o questionamento sobre o impulso do autor em escrever um romance histórico em tempos de prosperidade financeira, pois Doyle publica a obra durante o período conhecido como Tigre Celta (1994-2008). Também questionamos por que o autor decide representar Dublin e os heróis nacionais de modo contrastante com o simbolismo nacionalista. Entendemos que o contexto de publicação do romance influencia a produção artística e, dessa forma, ao escolher a temática histórica, Doyle constrói uma crítica ao nacionalismo do início do século XX e também à sociedade do Tigre Celta. O autor entrelaça temporalidades a fim de expor as lacunas e inconsistências do passado e também do presente.
A Star Called Henry (1999), by the Irish writer Roddy Doyle (1958), is the first book of the trilogy The Last Roundup, whose protagonist is Henry Smart. He is born in Dublin at the beginning of the twentieth century and he plays an important role in the fight for Irelands independence. Along with the Irish Volunteers, Smart fights in the 1916 Easter Rising, helps to write the proclamation of independence and becomes a soldier of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the War of Independence (1919-1921). Henry is a hero, but not the classic kind: the son of a hired killer and a poor teenager, Smart is a thief since his early years and, when he fights for Ireland, he is not interested in the nationalist ideal, since he fights for money, food and recognition. Living at the margins of society, Henry Smart deconstructs the romantic aura around the Rising, the War of Independence and the nationalist heroes. The starting point of this research is to investigate the authors impulse to write a historical novel in times of financial prosperity, since Doyle publishes the book during the Celtic Tiger era (1994-2008). We also aim to understand why the author decides to represent Dublin and the nationalist heroes in a way that contrasts with the nationalist symbolism. We understand that the context of publication influences the artistic production, and, therefore, when choosing the historical theme, Doyle criticizes both the early twentieth-century nationalism and the Celtic Tiger society. The author intertwines temporalities in order to expose the gaps and inconsistencies of the past and the present.

"Quare Contestations: Bridging Queer, Lesbian, and Feminist Narratives of the Irish Diaspora" examines three sets of biographical and autobiographical narratives about Irish who migrated to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. Dwelling primarily in queer studies and diaspora studies, this thesis participates in the construction of a queer Irish diaspora archive by analyzing the spaces of overlap between Irish queer, feminist, and lesbian - together, quare - theory and lived experience in these narratives. In my analysis, I demonstrate the fluidity, movement, and interdisciplinary scope of a quare framework for approaching studies of gender and sexuality in the Irish diaspora context. This thesis intervenes into the work already being done to queer Irish diaspora by examining the contestations of "Irishness" appearing in the narratives that are analyzed, and by in turn contesting and complicating the action and meanings made by "queer" in the existing archive of queer Irish diaspora literature.

Esta tese de doutoramento pretende estudar a forma como o tema literário do jogo de decapitação foi transmitido da literatura medieval irlandesa para o romance arturiano. O jogo de decapitação é um episódio central da narrativa irlandesa Fled Bricrenn e o mesmo tema está presente nos romances arturianos franceses Le Livre de Caradoc, Perlesvaus, La Mule Sans Frein e Hunbaut, assim como no romance arturiano inglês Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, onde também é central para a narrativa. Visto que a narrativa irlandesa é a mais antiga, tudo aponta para que seja a fonte das versões arturianas. O objectivo deste trabalho é então entender quais foram os canais de transmissão que permitiram ao tema ser transmitido desde a literatura medieval irlandesa até ao romance arturiano, e se o significado do tema literário sofreu mudanças na passagem da tradição irlandesa para a arturiana. O estudo deste assunto não é actualizado há bastantes anos, e ocorreram várias mudanças de paradigma e avanços no estudo tanto da literatura irlandesa como arturiana. É portanto também um propósito desta tese dar uso a esses desenvolvimentos de forma a compreender a transmissão com maior claridade e melhores resultados.
This PhD dissertation intends to study how the story motif of the beheading game was transmitted from early Irish literature to Arthurian romance. The beheading game is a central episode of the Irish narrative Fled Bricrenn and the same motif is found in the Arthurian French romances Le Livre de Caradoc, Perlesvaus, La Mule Sans Frein and Hunbaut, as well as in the Middle English Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where it is also central to the narrative. Since the Irish narrative is the earliest one, it seems to have been the source of the Arthurian versions. The aim of this work is then to understand the channels of transmission which allowed the motif to travel from early Irish literature to Arthurian romance, and whether the significance or meaning of the motif was changed in the passage from Irish to Arthurian tradition. The study of this subject has not been updated in some years, and there were several paradigm shifts and advancements in the study of both Irish as well as of Arthurian literature. It is therefore also the purpose of this dissertation to make use of those developments in order to understand the transmission with greater clarity and results.