“Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.”
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 1

The IASIL Conference was amazing. I found myself amongst speakers who had travelled from all over the world to deliver papers on Irish Studies. Surrounded by such accomplished people I felt completely out of my depth. I felt like I wore my ignorance all over my face. More than once I opened my mouth just to confirm that yes, I am completely ignorant. However, I loved being able to soak up all that was going on around me. It was a great experience.

While ‘Intertextuality’ was the predominant theme, the topics were as diverse as the places from which people travelled yet a common love of Irish Literature, History and Cultural Studies fostered a great sense of unity amongst the group. Many in the group have known each other for years through the Association yet that did not hinder them from welcoming newcomers into their midst. I was most touched by the way even the most accomplished delegates, such as Christopher Murray, mingled and spoke with the least accomplished attendees, such as myself. The people really were lovely.

As well as meeting some amazing people and enjoying socialising, I also heard some very good lectures. Amongst my favourite lectures were:

Prof. Coilin Parsons, Word Maps: J.M. Synge’s Prose Writings and the Ordinance Survey

Dr Eamonn Hughes, At Swim-Two-Birds in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Dr. Masaya Shimokusu, Dublin Bohemia

Dr. Cliona Ni Ríordáin, Intertextuality and the Ethics of Translation

Tom Keneally also spoke about Revisionism and the esteemed Christopher Murray presented a lecture previously given at the National Gallery of Ireland, on Beckett and his passion for the artwork of J.B. Yeats. The work of Beckett was also compared to that of O’Casey, Friel and Kavanagh and was considered with reference to intertextuality, and modernist ideas of representation and aesthetics.

I have only mentioned but a handful of the papers presented. There were many more I heard and many that I didn’t hear but would have loved to. Sadly I missed the talks given by John Tranter and David Malouf. You can find the abstracts for the papers presented at the IASIL website, simply click on the speakers name for more details. I am not going to go into the specific details of the theses presented as I am not comfortable publishing the work of others, some of which have not yet been published, in a public forum; however, there are a few amusing quotes I am able to share.

One of my favourite quotes came from At Swim-Two-Birds, by Flann O’Brien. In his paper on O’Brien’s work, Eamonn Hughes read the following excerpt from At Swim-Two-Birds:

Characters should be interchangeable as between one book and another. The entire corpus of existing literature should be regarded as a limbo from which discerning authors could draw their character as required, creating only when they failed to find a suitable existing puppet. The modern novel should be largely a work of reference. Most authors spend their time saying what has been said before – usually said much better. A wealth of references to existing works would acquaint the reader instantaneously with the nature of each character, would obviate tiresome explanations and would effectively preclude mountebanks, upstarts, thimbleriggers and persons of inferior education from an understanding of contemporary literature.

On hearing this quote I immediately imagined a very strange montage of unlikely characters meeting in uncanny situations. Imagine, for example, Elizabeth Bennett sitting down to tea with a Froddo in a hut, in the Australian outback, or even in Sydney today. It’s a strange but not impossible idea for literature. I have not yet read At Swim-Two-Birds but have wanted to and have a renewed interest and determination to do so after my brief introduction to the text through Eamonn’s presentation. But then again, perhaps it is better to preserve the delicate and exotic beauty of my ignorance.