Representations of Jews in Irish literature (1590-1922)
When
Wednesday, July 6, 2016, 13:00Where
Tickets
Lunchtime Lecture by Dr Barry Montgomery, Ulster University
Dr Barry Montgomery, Research Associate in Irish-Jewish Literature at the Ulster University, will give the first of two lectures looking at the portrayal of Jews and Jewishness in Irish literature.
The second lecture 'Representations of Jews in twentieth-century Gaelic literature' will be given by Dr Rióna Ní Fhrighil, NUI Galway, 20 July 2016, 1pm. These lectures accompany the exhibition 'Representations of Jews in Irish Literature.'
Funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Representations of Jews in Irish Literature is a landmark project between Ulster University and the National University of Ireland, Galway. It examines the portrayal of Jewishness through an exhibition and publications which include a selection of key Irish-Jewish writing and Irish literature about Jews. Adopting a thematic and chronological approach, it investigates the depiction of Jews and Jewishness in Ireland from the Annals of Inisfallen in the medieval period, then through to centuries of poetry, prose and drama to the present day. Exploring the relationship between Jews and Ireland as found in the literary record, it reveals both the prejudices of writers who often had little or no direct contact with Jews and, later, an emerging Irish-Jewish literary sphere that shows a vibrant, vocal community at ease with its hyphenated sense of identity and culture. It also acknowledges the fraught past faced by a minority culture in Ireland and how this culture sought recognition and found accommodation on this island, and ultimately, found its place in the pantheon of Irish history, writing, and society.