Irish Romanticism: A Literary History

Irish Romanticism: A Literary History

What does 'Irish romanticism' mean and when did Ireland become romantic? How does Irish romanticism differ from the literary culture of late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, and what qualities do they share? Former Burns Scholar Claire Connolly proposes that Romanticism is a temporally and aesthetically distinct period in Irish culture in her new book, Irish Romanticism: A Literary History (Cambridge University Press). Connolly argues that during this period, Irish literature flourished in new forms and styles, as evidenced by the lives and writings of Thomas Dermody, Mary Tighe, Maria Edgeworth, Lady Morgan, Thomas Moore, Charles Maturin, John Banim, Gerald Griffin, William Carleton, and James Clarence Mangan. Their books were written, sold, circulated, and read in Ireland, Britain, and America, and as such were caught up in the shifting dramas of a changing print culture, itself shaped by asymmetries of language, power, and population.

Elisa Cozzi (Notre Dame) and Colleen Taylor (Boston College) will be joining Connolly to discuss Irish Romanticism.

You may also like the following events from Irish Studies at Boston College:

• Next month, 8th April, 05:00 pm, Ray Cashman, Burns Scholar Spring 2026: “Exploring Belief in Spirits of the Dead among Contemporary in Chestnut Hill
• Next month, 16th April, 05:00 pm, Heroes of the Gael: A History of Fionn and the Fianna in Newton
• Next month, 25th April, 10:00 am, The Joyce of Creativity in Chestnut Hill

Also check out other Arts events in Chestnut Hill, Literary Art events in Chestnut Hill, Performances in Chestnut Hill.