Efacis 
Occasioned by the current Decade of Centenaries, Ireland’s proverbial obsession with cultural traditions has spurred a wide range of scholarship that has offered critical interrogations of monolithic conceptualisations of tradition as well as important reflections on the ways in which Irish traditions have been reimagined time and again. In 2018, we will address the shifting meanings of tradition in a year that marks the centenary of various seminal events in Irish history, such as the controversial introduction of the Military Service Bill as well as the 1918 elections, which led Sinn Féin to proclaim the First Dáil. In literature, too, 1918 was a momentous year, with the publication of literary texts ranging from Terence MacSwiney’s Battle-Cries to James Joyce’s Telemachus episode in The Little Review.
The diversity of such texts demonstrates the centrality of tradition to the Irish (self-) imagination and suggests that tradition should be acknowledged as one of the central themes in Irish and Irish diaspora literature, which is often premised on the question of what it means to be Irish, and what the role of the Irish past should be in the present. The 2018 IASIL conference will offer scholars the opportunity to explore how Irish literature engages with tradition. Using this overarching interpretive category, this conference will explore the ways traditions are invented, reinvented, subverted, and repositioned, facilitating reflections on a strongly differentiated Irish and Irish-diasporic literary landscape.
Possible topics include:
- Literary (re)conceptualisations of folklore and associated folk traditions in Irish literature;
- Representations of authenticity, local colour, the rural, and the regional in Irish literature;
- Literary (re)configurations of contested historical events and traditions;
- Irish literature vis-à-vis vernacular and diasporic traditions;
- Intertextuality and experimentation with literary genres and traditions by Irish writers;
- The modifications of literary traditions (e.g. styles, genres, forms of dissemination) as a result of emigration from Ireland and immigration into Ireland;
- (Re)imaginations and adaptations of literary texts, movements and authors on the Irish screen and stage;
- Technological developments in the transmission of Irish literary traditions, authors and texts.
In keeping with IASIL’s general practice, papers are also invited in other areas of Irish literary studies. The organisers invite proposals of 250 words for twenty-minute papers, for three-paper panels or discussion roundtables, to be delivered in the English or the Irish language. These can be sent to: iasil2018@let.ru.nl. Please also include a brief biographical sketch of max. 50 words. Deadline for submission: 31 January 2018. See also http://www.ru.nl/iasil
