<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This study explores the significance of East-Central Europe in a range of James Clarence Mangan’s poetry and prose from 1838–1847, focusing particularly on his depiction of Biedermeier Vienna (in the short story “The Man in the Cloak”), revolutionary uprisings in Poland and Albania (in the poems “Siberia” and “Song of the Albanian”), and his translations from the work of Bohemian-born Viennese poet Joseph Christian Freiherr von Zedlitz (1790–1862). I argue that Mangan’s interest in this region is twofold. On the one hand, it stems from the amenability of East-Central European culture and writing to the themes and tropes of the gothic, a genre central to Mangan’s imagination; on the other, from an underlying affinity in the historical position of the Irish and East-European poet in negotiating complex and contested politics of identity. While Mangan is a poet keenly conscious of “the importance of elsewhere,” and closely engaged in contemporary continental politics, I suggest that these European elsewheres also function as Foucauldian heterotopias, mythopoetic mirrors that enable the poet both to participate in Irish cultural nationalism and to register his dissent and distance from it.</p></abstract>

This study explores the significance of East-Central Europe in a range of James Clarence Mangan’s poetry and prose from 1838–1847, focusing particularly on his depiction of Biedermeier Vienna (in the short story “The Man in the Cloak”), revolutionary uprisings in Poland and Albania (in the poems “Siberia” and “Song of the Albanian”), and his translations from the work of Bohemian-born Viennese poet Joseph Christian Freiherr von Zedlitz (1790–1862). I argue that Mangan’s interest in this region is twofold. On the one hand, it stems from the amenability of East-Central European culture and writing to the themes and tropes of the gothic, a genre central to Mangan’s imagination; on the other, from an underlying affinity in the historical position of the Irish and East-European poet in negotiating complex and contested politics of identity. While Mangan is a poet keenly conscious of “the importance of elsewhere,” and closely engaged in contemporary continental politics, I suggest that these European elsewheres also function as Foucauldian heterotopias, mythopoetic mirrors that enable the poet both to participate in Irish cultural nationalism and to register his dissent and distance from it.

East-Central Europe in the Writing of James Clarence Mangan

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

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This study explores the significance of East-Central Europe in a range of James Clarence Mangan’s poetry and prose from 1838–1847, focusing particularly on his...

East-Central Europe in the Writing of James Clarence Mangan

Publié en ligne: 09 nov. 2020

Pages: 10 - 26

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2020-0002

Mots clés
James Clarence Mangan, Gothic, Vienna, Napoleon, Zedlitz

© 2020 Sinéad Sturgeon, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

East-Central Europe in the Writing of James Clarence Mangan

Publié en ligne: 09 nov. 2020

Pages: 10 - 26

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2020-0002

Mots clésJames Clarence Mangan, Gothic, Vienna, Napoleon, Zedlitz

© 2020 Sinéad Sturgeon, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
James Clarence Mangan, Gothic, Vienna, Napoleon, Zedlitz