Introduction

This Special Issue of ABEI Journal – The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies is a selection of papers presented at the conference, entitled “Interrelations: Irish Literatures and Other Forms of Knowledge”.This Special Issue of ABEI Journal – The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies is a selection of papers presented at the conference, entitled “Interrelations: Irish Literatures and Other Forms of Knowledge”

Let the Great Narrative Spin: A Poetics of Relations

Contemporary art is at a turning point, questioning crystallizedsystems of representation and intersubjective relations in order to reconfigure the imaginative framework of people at multiple cultural intersections. Literature is a space which consists of various fractured spaces of knowledge which are simultaneously interconnected. Based upon the renowned physicist David Bohm’s proposal (1992) which points out the way in which thought shapes our perceptions, significations and daily actions, I will analyse Colum McCann’s narrative in Let the Great World Spin (2009) to understand how the writer explores the contemporary “shadows” of the present (Agamben 2006), which manifest themselves in a constant flux of relationships that are triggered by memory and grasped at different levels of perception. I will only focus on the opening of the novel and the closing chapters of the four books, which function as interchapters or intermezzos of the episodes in the lives of the various characters which are narrated in between; the life of Corrigan seen mainly through the eyes of his brother Ciaran is the main line of the narrative which is intersected by other narratives. Colum McCann’s art of writing discloses a different treatment of literary elements and concepts in transition, requiring a theoretical approachthat apprehends contemporary literature in its complexity. Édouard Glissant’s “poetics of relation” (1990) - both aesthetic and political - helps to understand McCann’s literary strategies of telling, connecting and constructing parallel consciousness of self and surroundings in order to transform mentalities and reshape societies

Rumours of “The Insurrection in Dublin” across the South Atlantic

This article shows how James Stephens’ daily journalistic record of the rumours and tension of the Easter Rising in Dublin’s streets intersectswith beliefs in freedom, idealism, justice and patriotism already present in his previous work, with Roger Casement’s Speech from the Dock and narratives constructed under the Southern Cross. Based on Rosnow’s and Allport and Portsman’s concepts of rumour as well as on Igor Primoratz’s and Aleksandar Pavković’s concepts of patriotism, I deconstruct news of the Rising that reached the South Atlantic shores and spread through local and Irish community newspapers. An analysis of the words chosen by the journalists to describe the Rising – such as ‘insurrection’, ‘rebellion’, ‘revolution’, ‘rioting’, ‘rising’ – reveal the political position adopted by the newspapers of the Irish communities in Argentina and also in Brazil.Keywords: James Stephens, Easter Rising, South American press, Eamonn Bulfin, Roger Casement

Introduction

Introduction to the General Issue 24.2 of the ABEI Journal.Introdução à edição 24.2 do ABEI Journal

Interviewing Hugo Hamilton

This interview took place at the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, on 19th August 2013. Hamilton discussed the relationship between language and identity and reflected upon the art of writing in his novel The SpeckledPeople which is part of the curriculum of the undergraduate course of Linguistic and Literary Studies in English.Keywords: Hugo Hamilton; The Speckcled People; language; identity; nation