Guest Lecture: Maurice Fitzpatrick (University of Tübingen, Germany), "The Legacy of Seamus Deane"

This lecture will examine the life and legacy of Seamus Deane. One of Ireland’s most perspicacious critics and writers, Deane wrote several works that were explicit attempts to frame Irish Studies, namely A Short History of Irish Literature, Celtic Revivals, Strange Country and Small World. The lecture would explore several dimensions of Deane that added a radical perspective to his writings: he was from the North and continually positioned the North as an important, if not central, part of Ireland’s national culture; he was concerned with Europeanising Irish critical writing through contact with such thinkers as Walter Benjamin and Theodore Adorno; he was also a central figure in broadening Irish Studies in the USA through his foundational role in the Irish Studies programme at the University of Notre Dame. The lecture will draw on his novel, Reading in the Dark.

Maurice Fitzpatrick is a lecturer, film director, and author who was educated at Trinity College Dublin.

He has made two documentary films for the BBC: The Boys of St. Columb's (also an RTÉ production) and Translations Revisited. In 2017, he wrote, directed and produced a documentary feature film, John Hume in America, on the political life of Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume, which has screened in over 30 countries. He is also the author of The Boys of St. Columb’s (The Liffey Press, 2010; University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) and John Hume in America: From Derry to DC (Irish Academic Press, 2017; University of Notre Dame Press, 2019) which has been welcomed by Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi as “a wonderful reminder of the strength in diplomacy and the close relationship between the United States and Northern Ireland” and by The Sunday Business Post as one of the “20 Vital Books . . . about the Northern conflict.” In the US, it was named an “Outstanding Title in 2020” by Choice, a division of the American Library Association.

Mr. Fitzpatrick has studied and researched around the world. He was a recipient of the Ministry of Education of Japan scholarship 2004-2007 and a lecturer at Keio University, Tokyo, 2007-11, at Bonn University 2011-2012 and at the University of Cologne 2012-2016. In addition, he was a Poynter Fellow at Yale University in 2019 and the 2020 Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University.

In the winter term 2022/23, Maurice Fitzpatrick is the Travelling Visiting Professor for Irish Studies at the University of Tübingen. 

Registration
If you are interested in participating in this online event, please sign up by sending an email with the subject line “FITZPATRICK” to  irishstudies@uni-wuerzburg.de by January 23, 2023. Please include your full name and affiliation or address. All participants will receive a zoom link to the event in due time. 
 
Please note that the above given email address is used solely for registration purposes. If you want to contact ISWÜ, please use the contact information given below.

Contact

Irish Studies Würzburg (ISWÜ)

Prof. Dr. Ina Bergmann & Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann

ina.bergmann@uni-wuerzburg.de, maria.eisenmann@uni-wuerzburg.de