Revolutionary Dante: Commemorations, Sectarianisms and Publics

A lecture by Dr Daragh O’Connell (University College Cork / Centre for Dante Studies in Ireland) with response from Prof Patrick Geoghegan (TCD) organised by Serena Vandi (TCD) and Federica Coluzzi (University of Warwick - Centre for Dante Studies in Ireland).

Please register here. 

This talk positions Dante within the context of the Irish revolutionary period, and in particular the immediate post-Treaty context. Dante becomes a contested site for how the new emerging Ireland chose to define itself in and through Dante. The sexcentenary Dante commemorations of 1921 offer an intriguing insight into this new (almost independent) Ireland. Indeed, Dante becomes the vector for all manner of biases – political and religious, piety and iconoclasm. Alongside this official ‘Irish Dante’, was an emerging and equally subversive Dante, modernist and secular, polylingual and polyphonic, and no less Irish for all that (Joyce, Beckett, et al.). Special consideration will also be given to the figure of Alice Curtayne whose Recall to Dante (1932) and her subsequent engagement with the Florentine maps an official Irish Dante for much of the twentieth century.

This event is run in accordance with Trinity’s Dignity and Respect policy, and its commitment to nurturing a respectful and inclusive research culture.
Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: VANDIS@tcd.ie