scholarly journals In Spite of Dungeon, Fire, and Sword: Peadar Ó Gealacáin and the survival of the Gaelic Irish Literary Tradition

Oceánide ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 52-60
Author(s):  
Ciarán Dawson

As we advance through the 19th century in Ireland, the Irish Gaelic Literary tradition, one of the oldest in Western Europe, found itself in danger of extinction. The failure of the Irish language to find foothold in the towns and cities, and the subsequent failure of the language’s literary movement to transition itself into the printed mode, left the literature and poetry locked within the oral and manuscript traditions. With the ethnic cleansing of Ireland by Westminster well under way, first through forced emigration and then through famine, a small group of scribes set themselves the mammoth task of preserving this national treasure by travelling the country and writing down the songs, poems, and prose which were the result of centuries of literary effort on the part of the native Irish. By the end of the period the population had fallen from almost 9.000.000 at its height to less than 4.000.000: with no monoglot Irish speakers left. However due to the efforts of this small group of individuals we retain most of our literary wealth. This work tells the story of one of them, Peadar Ó Gealacáin.

Author(s):  
Giovanni Federico

Italy's colonial history is better known for its failures (notably the battle of Adwa, the major defeat of a Western power by an African army in the 19th century) than for its achievements. Italy succeeded in conquering a substantial «empire» only in the 20th century, when the traditional colonial powers were already in retreat1. But this has not always been the case. The Venetian republic successfully ruled for many centuries the first «colonial» empire in Western Europe 2.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-28
Author(s):  
Jerzy Supady

The Enlightenment ideology and the French Revolution had a very negative impact on the activities of religious congregations in respect of nursing care of the sick in hospitals in the 18th century. Emperor Napoleon I attempted to improve the existing situation by restoring the right for nursing care to nuns. In the first half of the 19th century, in Germany catholic religious orders had the obligation to provide nursing care and in the 30’s of the 19th century the Evangelical Church also joined charity work in hospitals by employing laywomen, i.e. deaconesses.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-237
Author(s):  
Claudia Lindén

The vampire is still primarily a literary figure. The vampires we have seen on TV and cinema in recent years are all based on literary models. The vampire is at the same time a popular cultural icon and a figure that, especially women writers, use to problematize gender, sexuality and power. As a vampire story the Twilight series both produces and problematizes norms in regard to gender, class and ethnici-ty. As the main romantic character in Twilight, Edward Cullen becomes interesting both as a vampire of our time and as a man. In a similar way as in the 19th century novel the terms of relationship are negotiated and like his namesake Edward Rochester, Edward Cullen has to change in important ways for the “happy end-ing” to take place. In spite of a strong interest in sexuality and gender norms in relation to vampires very few studies have focused exclusively on masculinity. This article examines the construction of masculinity in relation to vampirism in the Twilight series. It offers an interpretation of Stephenie Meyer’s novels and the character of Edward as part of a broader field of feminist (re-)uses of the vampire in modern literature with its roots in the literary tradition from Austen and the Brontë-sisters as well as from classic Gothic fiction.


Author(s):  
Ilan Stavans

Jewish writing in Latin America is a centuries-old tradition dating back to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. During the colonial period, it manifested itself among crypto-Jews who hid their religious identity for fear of being persecuted by the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Assimilation mostly decimated this chapter, which is often seen as connected with Sephardic literature after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. New waves of Jews arrived in the last third of the 19th century from two geographic locations: the Ottoman Empire (this wave is described as Levantine and its languages as Ladino, French, Spanish, and Arabic) and eastern Europe (or Ashkenazi with Yiddish, German, and central European tongues). Jewish life thrived in Latin America throughout the 20th century. The largest, most artistically productive communities were in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico, and smaller ones existed in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Panama, and Uruguay. Identity as a theme permeates everything written by Latin American Jewish writers. Central issues defining this literary tradition are immigration, anti-Semitism, World War II, Zionism, and the Middle Eastern conflict. The Jewish literary tradition in Latin America has undergone crossovers as a result of translations, global marketing, and the polyglot nature of several of its practitioners. This field of study is still in its infancy. Some important studies on Latin American Jewish history, either continental in scope or by country, appeared in the late 20th century and serve as context for the analysis. The literature has received less attention (some periods, such as the 19th century, are entirely forgotten), although, as this article attests, things are changing. The foundation for daring, in-depth literary explorations as well as interdisciplinary analysis is already in place. When possible this article showcases available monographs, although important research material remains scattered in periodicals and edited volumes.


1935 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 520-523
Author(s):  
F. G. Mukhamedyarov

The beginning of a sharp decline in the birth rate in Europe dates back to the last quarter of the 19th century, the period of the heyday of capitalism, when the exploitation of the working class takes on the most refined forms, the contradiction between the social status of women and her maternal function appears sharper and brighter.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Yao

In recent years, International Relations scholarship has looked back to the 19th century as a watershed epoch for the formation of the current international order and the development of ‘Standards of Civilization’ to legitimate that order. However, limited attention has been paid to the role played by society’s relationship with the natural world in constructing these civilizational standards. This article argues that the control and exploitation of nature as a standard of civilization developed in the 19th century to constitute membership in a civilized European international society. The standard dictated that civilized polities must both demonstrate internal territorial control and uphold external obligations towards other actors. In examining 19th-century political contestations over the Danube River as a natural highway between Europe and the near periphery, I demonstrate that in the eyes of Western Europe, Russia failed to uphold the taming of nature as a civilizational standard, contributing to the delegitimization of its authority over the Danube. In its place, the Western powers following the Crimean War created an international commission to manage the Danube delta — a rational and scientific body to rectify the troublesome absence of civilized authority. These civilizational assumptions underpin the 1856 Danube Commission as an early international organization, and through its success, continue to have implications for today’s international order.


1976 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-155
Author(s):  
Manuel Medina

SPAIN IS A EUROPEAN COUNTRY, AT LEAST FROM A GEOGRAPHICAL point of view. Culturally and historically it is part of Western Europe. During most of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century it enjoyed constitutional government in one form or another. The liberal revolution of 1820 was the first outbreak of rebellion against the legitimist order imposed by the Holy Alliance in continental Europe. Men, institutions and parties of the Spanish Republic of 1931–36 were of European stature.


2009 ◽  
Vol 50 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 203-220
Author(s):  
Anna Dalos

After the revolution in 1956, the cultural policy in Hungary shifted to allow a new openness toward Western-European movements: consequently 1956–1967 became one of the most important transitional periods of Hungarian music history. Composers turned away from the tradition of the foregoing thirty years, determined by the influence of Bartók and Kodály, imitating rather the works of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Boulez, Nono, Lutosławski, Penderecki and Stockhausen. In this context the 78-year-old Zoltán Kodály’s Symphony, written in 1960–1961 for the Swiss Festival Orchestra and dedicated to the memory of Arturo Toscanini, was rejected by the young generation of composers and also Hungarian music critics, who turned themselves for the first time against the much-revered figure of authority. The Symphony’s emphasis on C major, its conventional forms, Brahms-allusions, pseudo self-citations and references to the 19th-century symphonic tradition were also received without comprehension in Western Europe. Kodály’s letters and interviews indicate that the composer suffered disappointment in this negative reception. Drawing on manuscript sources, Kodály’s statements and the Symphony itself, my study argues that the three movements can be read as caricature-like self-portraits of different phases of the composer’s life (the young, the mature and the old) and that Kodály identified himself with the symphonic genre and the C-major scale.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
Natalia D. Melnik

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to examine the coverage in the Russian and foreign press the preparation and conduct of the first Russian season in Paris (then in Berlin) by S. P. Diaghilev in 1906, which became the beginning of implementation of large-scale activities of impresario in Western Europe, whose main objective was the promotion of almost unknown at the time for the Europeans the Russian art. Results. Quoting the correspondence of artists-friends of Diaghilev, memoirs of contemporaries, publications in the press, as well as modern research, allows the author to assert that the basis of this cultural project of the impresario was the exhibition “Two centuries of Russian painting and sculpture”, where he exhibited ancient Russian icons, works of Russian artists of the 18th century – the first half of the 19th century, as well as paintings by members of the art Association “World of Art” who were the representatives of Russian symbolism and modernism. Conclusion. The studied materials indicate that the success of the first Russian season set the stage for further cultural activities to acquaint Western Europe with a variety of achievements of Russian art and their success among critics and the public.


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