This conference will address the ways in which Central and Eastern Europe has been represented in Irish literature and culture and the impact of Ireland on the literatures and cultures of Eastern Europe. While chiefly literary in focus, this is an interdisciplinary conference which will draw in the work of cultural anthropologists, political and cultural geographers and art historians. Papers will survey the literary and cultural relations between Ireland and Eastern European countries and might address thematic concerns such as:

• the writer in war and revolution
• religion, diversity and literature
• nationalist and anti-nationalist discourses
• artists and borders
• ‘Celticism’ and ‘Balkanism’
• modern Ireland in a transitional Europe
• contemporary Eastern European migration in Ireland
• the economy of translation between Ireland and Eastern Europe

As well as offering paradigmatic comparative analyses of modern Eastern European and Irish cultures, individual papers might discuss the literary and political treatment of Eastern Europe in the work of Irish writers such as W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Hubert Butler, Seamus Heaney, Dervla Murphy and Colm Tóibín. Other topics that might be examined include: Eastern European re-inscriptions of Joyce, the impact of Beckett on Eastern European theatre and the place of Irish music in Eastern Europe. It is intended that the proceedings will lead to a book publication.

Proposals for papers (250-300 words) should be submitted by 31 May 2011 to: irelandeastandwest@gmail.com

There will be no registration fee.

Keynote Speakers (to be confirmed)

Conference website: http://www.ffzg.hr/anglist/irishwww/ireland-ew.htm

Organisers:

Prof. Ljiljana Ina Gjurgjan (U. of Zagreb)
Dr. Eve Patten (Trinity College Dublin)
Dr. Aidan O’Malley (U. of Zagreb)