Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit! (lah leh PAH-drig SUN-uh gwitch!)  Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you!  During this day of festivities—public parades, wearing of green attire and shamrocks, feasting, and music—March 17^th annually marks the celebration of the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick.  He was a Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland in the 5^th century, and though this date marks the day of his death, it is a celebration of his life and of Ireland itself.  Saint Patrick’s Day is an ethnic and national holiday in Ireland, but is observed all over the world by the extended Irish and Catholic community.  In the spirit of the holiday, I went looking through our database for books that explore the history of Ireland as well as its culture today.  Anglo-Irish Identities serves as a collection of essays that studies the history leading to the identity of early modern Ireland, and then two books from our Contemporary Irish Writers series, Medbh McGuckian and Eavan Boland, lean towards a study of the works of two writers existing in Ireland today.

Anglo-Irish Identities, 1571-1845

Edited by David A. Valone and Jill Marie Bradbury (2008)

This book presents a series of essays that examine the ideological, personal, and political difficulties faced by the group variously termed the Anglo-Irish, the Protestant Ascendancy, or the English in Ireland, a group that existed in a world of contested ideological, political, and cultural identities. At the root of this conflicted sense of self was an acute awareness among the Anglo-Irish of their liminal position as colonial dominators in Ireland who were viewed as “other” both by the Catholic natives of Ireland and their English kinsmen. The work in this volume is highly interdisciplinary, bringing to bear examination of issues that are historical, literary, economic, and sociological. Contributors investigate how individuals experienced the ambiguities and conflicts of identity formation in a colonial society, how writers fought the economic and ideological superiority of the English, how the cooption of Gaelic history and culture was a political strategy for the Anglo-Irish, and how literary texts contributed to the emergence of national consciousness. In seeking to understand and trace the complex process of identity formation in early modern Ireland, the essays in this volume attest to its tenuous, dynamic, and necessarily incomplete nature.

Eavan Boland

Jody Allen Randolph (2013)

Contemporary Irish Writers

In this powerful and authoritative study Jody Allen Randolph provides the fullest account yet of the work of a major figure in twentieth-century Irish literature as well as in contemporary women’s writing. Eavan Boland’s achievement in changing the map of Irish poetry is tracked and analyzed from her first poems to the present. The book traces the evolution of that achievement, guiding the reader through Boland’s early attachment to Yeats, her growing unease with the absence of women’s writing, her encounter with pioneering American poets like Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, and Adrienne Rich, and her eventual, challenging amendments in poetry and prose to Ireland’s poetic tradition. Using research from private papers the book also traces a time of upheaval and change in Ireland, exploring Boland’s connection to Mary Robinson, in a chapter that details the nexus of a woman president and a woman poet in a country that was resistant to both. Finally, this book invites the reader to share a compelling perspective on the growth of a poet described by one critic as Ireland’s “first great woman poet.”

Medbh McGuckian

Borbála Faragó (2014)

Contemporary Irish Writers

This book offers a wide-ranging analysis of the entire corpus of Medbh McGuckian’s published work. Its objective is to provide both a readable synthesis of existing criticism, in a fashion which will be generally useful to academics and students, and also to offer an original contribution to the field of contemporary Irish literary studies on the basis of new research. The book investigates a variety of previously neglected themes, in particular McGuckian’s exploration of ideas of creativity and performativity in her poetry.

Over the past two decades McGuckian has been recognized by both her fellow poets and by literary critics as one of the most original, daring and important poetic voices in contemporary Ireland. Since 1982 she has published fifteen volumes of poetry, extraordinary not merely for its sustained quality and linguistic and technical virtuosity, but also for its constant evolution and reinvention. This book provides an original perspective on her work both thematically and methodologically. From a thematic perspective, the process of artistic creation is a key preoccupation of McGuckian’s poetry which recurs in every volume of her oeuvre but has previously escaped critical attention. By adapting and refining theories of singularity and creativity, the book allows for a coherent analysis of this central aspect of McGuckian’s work. Methodologically it differs from previous studies in the scope of its approach. Uniquely, it pursues its investigation across the entire breadth of the poet’s published output and emphasizes the thematic unity of individual volumes in the light of the poet’s constant change and development. Throughout the book, the reading of McGuckian’s work concentrates on poems in their entirety, an approach which has not figured to any notable degree in the existing secondary literature on the poet, not least because of the perceived difficulty of her writing. A critical investigation, however, which respects both the integrity of the individual poems and the internal coherence of her various volumes allows for a far deeper understanding both of the poet’s thematic preoccupations and of the evolution of her distinctive poetic voice.

***

In this collection of books we see a greater range of Ireland, from its historical struggles in Anglo-Irish Identities to how those identities have resulted and inspired writers in Ireland today like Eavan Boland and Medbh McGuckian.  Even the covers of these books reflect Irish identity, the cover art having been created by Irish artist Gráinne Dowling, her muses coming mostly from the landscape of Ireland itself.  As you enjoy the festivities and traditions of Saint Patrick’s Day, I leave you with an old Irish blessing: “May you escape the gallows, avoid distress, and be as healthy as a trout!”

 

To read more about the origins of the Contemporary Irish Writers series:

http://upress.blogs.bucknell.edu/2014/01/14/art-and-inspiration-in-contemporary-irish-writers/

To learn more about the inspirations of artist Gráinne Dowling:

http://upress.blogs.bucknell.edu/2014/11/06/an-interview-with-artist-grainne-dowling/

 

–Alana Jajko, 2014-15 Cynthia Fell Intern

 

 

 

As February, the month of love, comes to a close, I thought it appropriate to reflect on another commemoration for which it is known.   Since 1976, the month of February has been designated by every U.S. President as Black History Month.  It coincides with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas, as well as the founding of the NAACP on February 12, 1909.  Lincoln and Douglas were both prominent abolitionists—Douglas an escaped slave as well as strong author, orator, and activist for anti-slavery during the 1800s, and Lincoln abolishing slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.  But this month celebrates more than just the extinction of slavery.  It is a recognition of all of Black History’s significant moments, leaders, activists, and cultural identities as well.

The Griot Project Book Series here at Bucknell University Press also seeks to celebrate African American culture, exploring the aesthetic, artistic and cultural products and intellectual currents of historical and contemporary African America and of the African diaspora.  Our newest additions to the series in our partnership with the Griot Institute for Africana Studies are James Braxton Peterson’s In Media Res: Race, Identity and Pop Culture in the 21^st Century and Angèle Kingué’s Venus of Khala-Kanti.

 

In Media Res, edited by James Peterson, is a manifold collection that reflects the intersectional qualities of university programming in the twenty-first century. Taking race, gender, and popular culture as its central thematic subjects, the volume collects academic essays, speeches, poems, and creative works that critically engage a wide range of issues, including American imperialism, racial and gender discrimination, the globalization of culture, and the limitations of our new multimedia world. This diverse assortment of works by scholars, activists, and artists models the complex ways that we must engage university students, faculty, staff, and administration in a moment where so many of us are confounded by the “in medias res” nature of our interface with the world in the current moment. Featuring contributions from Imani Perry, Michael Eric Dyson, Suheir Hammad, John Jennings, and Adam Mansbach, In Media Res is a primer for academic inquiry into popular culture; American studies; critical media literacy; women, gender, and sexuality studies; and Africana studies.

 

Venus of Khala-Kanti is a tale of life-altering loss and mystical recovery. Set in an imaginary West African village that becomes a charming cul-de-sac, the unintended consequence of a national roadwork project gone awry, the story follows characters drawn with humor, irony, and empathy. The heart of the story beats with the laughter and tears of three women. Having faced incredible hardship, they come together to build their lives anew, armed with the age-old spirit of human resilience, understanding, and tenderness. Tapping into the very soil of Khala-Kanti, Bella, Assumta, and Clarisse construct spaces, both internal and external, where they and others can rejuvenate their bodies, minds, and spirits. They build the Good Hope Center, which embraces both the physical and the mystical landscape of the story. The Center fuels the restoration and growth of the village’s inhabitants, and offers sanctuary for those who visit and those who stay.

So as the month of love comes to a close, think about its significance as Black History Month too!  Expand that love to engulf the dynamic past and rich culture of the African American.  Happy February!  Happy Black History Month!

 

Learn more about the Griot Project Book Series here: http://www.bucknell.edu/script/upress/series.asp?id=55

–Alana Jajko, 2014-15 Cynthia Fell Intern

 

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, love is in the air! —And amongst the pages of a few of our books here at the Bucknell University Press.  Weeding back through our database, I came across three books in particular that revolve around the subjects of love and desire.  From the beginnings of scandalous love-triangles in fiction to the lyrical love subjects of medieval poetry to erotic literature, these three titles—George Sand in the Nineteenth-Century Russian Love-Triangle Novels, The Arrow of Love, and Excitable Imaginations—cover a spread of topics and analyses that delve deep into the spirit of Cupid’s arrow.

George Sand and the Nineteenth-Century Russian Love-Triangle Novels; by Dawn D. Eidelman (1994)

This first title addresses a series of engaging questions.  How did a French female novelist alter the course of history in another country?  Why were the chief proponents of the Women Question in nineteenth-century Russia exclusively men?  How was the call for reform of women’s education tied to the proletariat cause which ushered in the Russian revolution?  These are the few of the issues raised in this study of the impact of George Sand’s influence on nineteenth-century Russia.

Dawn Eidelman examines the ironic relationship of women and fiction in nineteenth-century Russia by considering the love-triangle novels that evolved out of Sand’s scandalous and precedent-setting romance novels.  Eidelman explores the issues of desire and culpability and the manner in which they relate to the texts, as well as to the sociopolitical climate of the times.  An interesting read to be sure!

The Arrow of Love: Optics, Gender, and Subjectivity in Medieval Love Poetry; by Dana E. Stewart (2003)

The Arrow of Love examines visual encounters in medieval lyrics, exploring the ways in which poets employed contemporary optical theory both to revitalize classic topoi, such as Cupid’s arrow, and to construct and develop subjectivities and gender roles. In the un-confessed or unrequited love that is so frequently the focus of medieval lyrics, an exchange of glances is often the primary contact between the lover and the beloved. As medieval poets sought new ways to describe visual interactions, many turned to the rapidly growing field of optical theory, which offered not only an array of images and metaphors but also models for the perceiving subject that could be adapted to poetic use. In particular, optical imagery and paradigms afforded poets a new approach to the roles of the languishing male and his powerful beloved.

Issues such as the relationship between the eyes and the heart, the power of the beloved’s glance, and the image of the beloved cherished by the lover in his heart have received attention from love poets since Classical Antiquity; this book shows how such themes are reinterpreted in medieval poetry in terms of contemporary advancements in the science of optics. In addition, many medieval poets wrote of light, rays, or spirits exiting from and/or entering the eyes of lyric lovers and their ladies; this study provides parallel accounts of these phenomena in contemporary works on optics and natural magic, and discusses the extent to which poets drew upon these non-literary descriptions.

Optical material did not merely serve to make poetry more technically detailed; frequently, it was employed to develop subjectivity and to portray power relations between the poet-lover and his beloved. For example, in some medieval optical treatises, vision is portrayed as an outwardly directed or even aggressive action; in others, it is described as a sort of painful intrusion upon the eye. This study explores how poets appropriate one or, in some cases, both of these models, often utilizing technical aspects of the theories in order to depict the one who is looking either as a powerful presence with a forceful, penetrating glance, or as a passive victim, assaulted by an image or even by the piercing glance of another.

Poets considered include Chrétien de Troyes, Giacorno da Lentini, Guido Cavalcanti, and Dante, authors whose use of optical material was particularly extensive and original. Medieval transformations of imagery involving the eyes persisted in literature for centuries; an epilogue considers the fate of these transformations in Renaissance poetry.

The eyes are the window to the soul, and have a way of communicating beyond words.  It is interesting to consider that they are connected to the heart, and hold such power when it comes to love, even in the medieval period.

Excitable Imaginations: Eroticism and Reading in Britain, 1660-1760; TRANSITS; by Katherine Lubey (2012)

Excitable Imaginations branches off onto a racier subject, offering a new approach to the history of pornography. Looking beyond a counter-canon of bawdy literature, Kathleen Lubey identifies a vigilant attentiveness to sex across a wide spectrum of literary and philosophical texts in eighteenth-century Britain. Esteemed public modes of writing such as nationalist poetry, moral fiction, and empirical philosophy, as well as scandalous and obscene writing, persistently narrate erotic experiences—desire, voyeurism, seduction, orgasm. The recurring turn to sexuality in literature and philosophy, she argues, allowed authors to recommend with great urgency how the risqué delights of reading might excite the imagination to ever greater degrees of educability on moral and aesthetic matters. Moralists such as Samuel Richardson and Adam Smith, like their licentious counterparts Rochester, Haywood, and Cleland, purposefully evoke salacious fantasy so that their audiences will recognize reading as an intellectual act that is premised on visceral pleasure. Eroticism in texts like Pamela and Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, in Lubey’s reading, did not compete with instructive literary aims, but rather was essential to the construction of the self-governing Enlightenment subject.

This book seems to take a unique perspective on the evolution of all sorts of erotic texts.  A provocative read!

As you get in the spirit of the upcoming holiday, you may want to reconsider it as something beyond a day of romance and chocolates.  Just from these few books, we see that love is a complex topic with many angles to be explored.  The intrigue of love-triangles, the power of a glance in medieval love poetry, and the evolution of eroticism are only a few of the subjects that fill the great chasm of mysteries surrounding the enigma that is love.

Interested in more?

Check out these books on our database: http://www.bucknell.edu/universitypress.xml

–Alana Jajko, 2014-15 Cynthia Fell Intern

Contemporary Irish Writers Series

 

 

Gráinne Dowling, an Irish artist whose work is exhibited on the covers of the Contemporary Irish Writers series, shares insight into her artistic process, inspirations, her experience as an evolving artist, as well as a few of her favorite works and the stories behind them.

When asked about inspiration, Ms. Dowling explains that it is more a matter of attention than inspiration. It is about immersing herself in her surroundings, getting lost in a landscape, in life, and then letting it show her something striking, bringing her back to earth and motivating her to create a new work of art.  She recalls a repeated cycle that she experiences:

“I walk frequently in a beautiful parkland at the foot of the Dublin Mountains. There are days, months even, when I am aware that I am not seeing as I pass through and by the trees and water.  I am distracted from life, by life.  Then, I turn or lift my head and am shocked or gripped by something that trips me back into seeing.  And I begin again.”

Once something is called to her “attention,” Ms. Dowling goes out into the landscape, bringing   “everything but the kitchen sink.  Paints, pencils, charcoal copper plates, etching needles…the lot!”  After trying them all she will settle down to one medium.  This process of choosing the right medium generally takes a couple of hours, but could even take a couple of days.  For her creative process, “The medium follows the view.”  More recently, Ms. Dowling has worked in print, creating etchings from drawings or photographs, and even sometimes drawing directly on the plate from life as it “gives an immediacy or life to the line.”

Over the years her attention has shifted in subject matter. Though she is more intent on landscape now, her mother has always occupied her center of interest in addition to the turbulent times of the ‘60s and ‘70s, politically and morally.  As a young artist, Ms. Dowling remembers being “committed and optimistic and directly responsive to all that was presenting itself through the media.”   She recalls specifically “doing a large pen and ink drawing having stood up and left the television coverage of Bloody Sunday and going directly to work in confusion and passion to express the intense emotion I felt.”  For Dowling, it seems that her work “is always in and about Ireland. And yet I find myself wondering what it is.  Birth place? Soil?”  It is “too vast a question” for her to answer explicitly, but Ireland is always there, always a subject for attention in one way or another, which is perhaps what made her artwork an ideal choice for the Contemporary Irish Writers Series.

 

Artist’s Favorites

 

Of Ms. Dowling’s collection of works, of few of her favorites include: “The Artist’s Mother” (charcoal), “Wintering With Snow” (Etching), and “Achill Sunset” (watercolor).  For the first, the artist’s mother has always been a lifelong interest, and now that Dowling herself is a mother, and grandmother, she sees herself “in a mirror within which the mystery continues.”  As for the second, the work is inspired by a poem of Dowling’s American friend, Samuel Menashe.  It is short piece on the “glorious mystery of Snow on the Dublin mountains,” the poet remembering when he was engulfed into the Battle of the Bulge during World War II:

The Dead of Winter

In my coat I sit

At the window sill

Wintering with snow

That did not melt

It fell long ago

At night, by stealth

I was where I am

When the snow began

The third work, “Achill Sunset,” was completed by the artist more immediately on a day when “the light was shocking after all that rain and mist for days.” She grabbed her paints and hopped in the car, knowing she had “only about fifteen minutes to get the paint down before everything changed.”  And she managed.  It is moments like these that call to Dowling’s attention and bring her back into seeing, a fleeting moment in nature—“the source and entrance into imaginative memory.”

 

–Alana Jajko, 2014-15 Cynthia Fell Intern