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Historical bg : Civil War, Irish Free State in 1922 (1937: renamed itself as Ireland and declared itself republic in 1949) Northern-Ireland: : - limited independence, - Protestant, Unionist government in Belfast. - The Troubles : direct British rule. 1985: Anglo-Irish (or Hillsborough) Agreement - the Irish Gov. has an advisory role - about the parades
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CULTURE AND LITERATUREBŐDY EDIT2014 /2015
Language and Identity – Ireland and Northern-
Ireland
Preliminary information – historical bg.
1800: Act of Union (Union of Great Britain and the Irish Kingdom) and its consequences
1845-1848: potato blight, starvation, emigration
→ drastic decrease in population
Late 19th century: fight for Home Rule (Charles Stuart Parnell)
1916: Easter: Easter Rising
Historical bg.
1919-1921: Civil War, Irish Free State in 1922 (1937: renamed itself as Ireland and declared itself republic in
1949)Northern-Ireland: 1922-1972:
- limited independence, - Protestant, Unionist government in Belfast. - The Troubles- 1972: direct British rule.
1985: Anglo-Irish (or Hillsborough) Agreement- the Irish Gov. has an advisory role- about the parades
Recent events
1998: Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement: more freedom, cooperation bw. London and
Belfast.Everybody can be a citizen of the Republic
of IrelandNI will remain in the UK as long as the
majority of its people want it that wayNew institutions, eg. NI Assembly2007: internal self-government with a First Minister
In Ireland…
“Celtic Tiger Years”: 1990 – 2008Critical and literary re-examination:Abandoning romantic (false) patriotismFeminism, female writersGlobalizationIrish abroad, diaspora (cca. 70 million people) –
racial issues
Relevant issues concerning culture
Language: as a consequence of British colonization the Irish (Gaelic) language virtually disappears in the 18-19th centuries
Efforts to revive Gaelic Irish Literature: revival in the 18-19th c.: romantic
tendencies →Claim for a national culture including
literature.
Language and identity in the 20th century and contemporary dramas
Late 19th century: independence movements and cultural ones are intertwined.
Cultural renaissance In play-writing: to write
Irish national plays Mostly in English,
sometimes in Irish.Organising figures: W. B.
Yeats and his circle, esp. Lady Augusta Gregory.
1904: the Abbey Theatre
Language
The dilemma whether to write in English or Irish In most cases: compromises Common aim: an understandable language evoking
the impression of hearing or reading the plays in Gaelic Irish.
Earlier solutions (Abbey-writers):- Lady Gregory: English + Kiltartan dialect- John Millington Synge: a very complex dialect - English and dialects from Wicklow, Kerry and Galway.- John O’Casey: Dublin dialect of poor classes + Gaelic words
Language
Contemporary literature: in general the same method: to mix English with a Gaelic dialect.
- Brendan Behan and Hugh Leonard: Dublin dialect (like O’Casey)
- George Fitzmaurice and John B. Keane: Kerry dialect
- Brian Friel: Derry dialect
Irish English (Hiberno-English) language today
Is gradually losing its Gaelic heritage and is becoming similar to standard English →
Bigger challenge for the authors Strange phenomena: eg. the work of Eugene
Watters / Eoghan O’Tuairisc as a symbol of the language dilemma.
Linguistic hybridizationMulticulturalism