Irish Orientalism
Subtitle: a literary and intellectual history
By: Joseph Lennon.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Irish studies; Irish studies (Syracuse, N.Y.)
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Syracuse, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 478
Subjects: English literature -- Irish authors -- History and criticism; English literature -- Irish authors -- Oriental influences; Oriental literature -- Appreciation -- Ireland; Literature, Comparative -- Irish and Oriental; Literature, Comparative -- Oriental and Irish; Orientalism in literature; Orientalism -- Ireland; Ireland -- Intellectual life; Middle East -- In literature; Asia -- In literature
Description: "British writers from Cambrensis to Spenser depicted Ireland as a remote borderland inhabited by wild descendants of Asian Scythians - barbarians to the ancient Greeks. Contemporaneous Irish writers likewise borrowed classical traditions, imagining the Orient as an ancient homeland. Lennon traces the influence of Irish Orientalism through origin legends, philology, antiquarianism, and historiography into Irish literature and culture, exploring the works of Keating, O'Flaherty, Swift, Vallancey, Sheridan, Moore, Croker, Owenson, Mangan, de Vere, and others. He explores a key moment of Irish Orientalism - the twentieth-century, Celtic Revival - discussing the works of Gregory, Casement, Connolly, and Joyce, but focusing on Theosophist writers W. B. Yeats, George Russell, James Stephens, and James Cousins."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 435-457) and index.