Critical Inquiries Into Irish Studies 2023 CFP:
Literature of Irish Diaspora, Emigration, and Immigration

We hear our words
transformed

to sidewalks, buoys,
nickels and dimes,

but have we given up
our right to name

by walking through the
electric doors

into the gasoline air
of Logan Airport?

Should we put aside
our broken spades to mold

from scratched steel
and broken timber

huge bridges, enormous
words to talk of pain.

(“New Words” by Eamonn Wall, qtd. from New Perspectives on the Irish Diaspora, ed. Charles Fanning, Southern Illinois University Press, 2000)

Irish emigration has comprised one of the largest global movements in modern times. Critical Inquiries Into Irish Studies is seeking papers that discuss the effects of this mass movement as expressed in Irish and hyphenated-Irish literatures, from pre-Famine times to the present day. Possible approaches might be exploration of the characteristic exile motif, rooted in the history of English oppression, amplified by the Great Famine, and often reinforced by poverty and religious discrimination in the new country. Another might be discussion of the effects of hybridity, culturally and linguistically, on the formation of new identities and literary expressions. Another might be gender analysis: how do narratives challenge the myth of male Irish immigration, achieving success through hard work, as well as female self-sacrifice and rescue through marriage, the expectations of the Irish colleen. CIIIS encourages submissions on texts ranging from classics such as Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes and Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn, to the most recent, such as Vona Groarke’s Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O’Hara. Discussions of poetry and drama, as well as fiction, are encouraged.

Email a 350-word abstract by May 1, 2023. If accepted, finished essays of between 3000 – 5000 words should be received by August 1,
2023. Submit as a Word document in MLA format electronically to the editors: Dr Martha Carpentier (martha.carpentier@shu.edu)
and Dr Elizabeth Redwine (elizabeth.redwine@shu.edu), Seton Hall University, South Orange NJ, USA

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