Speakers - Session 2 - 2021

The Drama of Daughterhood in Great Britain and Scandinavia: Caryl Churchill’s and Margareta Garpe’s Plays of the 1970s and 1980s

My thesis aims at exploring the representation of daughterhood through a psychoanalytical and feminist critical approach in a selection of women playwrights from Great Britain and Scandinavia in the 1970s and 1980s. Motherhood and sisterhood have been pivotal topics of second-wave feminism; the purpose of my study is to change perspective and look at the daughter as both observer and active participant in the feminist battles. Starting from a presentation on the theoretical and methodological framework which centres on motherhood and daughterhood in psychoanalytical and feminist discourse, I will provide a historical overview of the different literary contexts. More specifically, the emergence of Thatcherism in Great Britain and its implications in feminist politics will be analysed in contrast to the consolidation of the social state in Scandinavia. After a brief introduction on some notable British and Scandinavian women playwrights of the 1970s and 1980s that have reassessed daughterhood in their work, my analysis will focus on two case studies, Caryl Churchill for Great Britain and Margareta Garpe for Sweden. Caryl Churchill is considered one of the most inventive and visionary living playwrights in the UK, with works that have already entered the literary canon. Her investigation on motherhood and daughterhood-related themes will be tackled in three of her most celebrated plays: ownership and motherhood in Owners (1972), the performance of motherhood in Cloud Nine (1979), and the mother/daughter battle in Top Girls (1982). The experience of the feminist collective in the composition and production of a play is a key aspect that will be pointed out also in relation to the Swedish case study: Margareta Garpe. One of the most important voices of contemporary Swedish theatre, Garpe famously collaborated with fellow playwright Suzanne Osten in realising political plays that aimed at igniting the public debate on feminist topics. This study will take into consideration the most influential of these collaborative works, Jösses Flickor! Befrielesen Är Nära (1974), which will be followed by two more intimate plays written by Garpe: freedom and sacrifice in Barnet (1977) and the reversal of family roles in Till Julia (1987). The final part of the thesis will provide a contrastive analysis of the case studies, to look at the different themes in a broader perspective. 

 Website of Luca Tosadori

Nuair cualadh mé gutha mar ceól Orphéus… / When I heard a voice like the music of Orpheus…

How can site-specific sculpture illuminate cultural-linguistic knowledge held within historical archival material? How can the process of materialising language operate within the demarcated linguacultural space of a small Irish (Gaelic)-speaking island? Oileán Chléire/Cape Clear Island is a small but significant Gaeltacht (traditionally Irish-speaking) Island, with a permanent population of 130. In such a small community, a significant factor in the economy and community life is linguacultural tourism, both through courses at the residential language college and through informal exchange in community and cultural settings. During 2020 I participated in the ‘Oileán AiR’ artist residency programme on Oileán Chléire where I developed a sculptural installation in the landscape: ‘An Leabharlann na gClocha Ceilte/ The Hidden Stone Library’. Taking as its starting point a poem, ‘Inis Chléire’ from the Duchas national folklore archive (that romanticises the island as an Irish-speaking paradise) I materialised lines from the poem in found stone tablets, carving them by hand in traditional Cló Gaelach letterforms. In this presentation I will unpack some of the complexities of understanding landscapes through sculptural materialisation of archival source texts, examining site-specific sculptural practices that explore cultural/historical aspects of place. As an active learner of Irish, resident in Ireland but with no familial/ancestral connection to Irish, I will examine some of the challenges around language ownership, to ask: who is the language for and to whom does it belong? Mindful of sensitivities around popular perceptions of the Gaeltacht as a ‘heartland of native Irish’, I will adopt definitions of working linguistic categories including ‘expert’, ‘hybrid’ and ‘potential’ new speakers of Irish - to ask how such artistic interventions can contribute to a sustainable balance of community and visitor needs, whilst remaining respectful towards the island’s fragile linguistic and natural ecology.

Website of Noah Rose

Books That Feel Like Home: Exploring Multilingual Identities Through Contemporary Latinx Literature in the United States

This research aims to examine how multilingualism presents itself in the literature produced
by multilingual authors with a focus on bilingual Spanish-English Latinx writers in the United
States. It will do so by analysing the published works of a number of contemporary authors
from several distinct Latinx communities (Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, etc.) as well as
conducting semi-structured interviews with said authors. The aim of text analysis is to discover
how bilingualism is reflected in their creative work, whether through specific linguistic
markers, the use of hybrid forms of writing or other ways, while semi-structured interviews
will provide the space to discuss the authors’ motivations and experiences of language.
Moreover, by looking at the written narratives produced by bilingual Latinx writers in the
United States, this research will also address themes of identity formation, migration and
immigration, language discrimination and hegemony, translation and self-translation, as well
as the role literature plays in fostering a sense of community belonging. Potentially, this
research can offer further insight into literary representation in the United States as well as the
relationship between multilingual texts, their authors and their readers. It can have implications
for school level education in increasingly multilingual communities, approaches to creative
writing teaching, migration theories, and also provide a basis for further studies looking into
different literary mediums produced by the Latinx community, such as spoken word poetry, or
studies using reader-response theory to specifically investigate the readership for bilingual
literature.

Website of Andreea Tint