Eastern European Perspectives on Celtic Studies (original) (raw)

New perspectives in Celtic Studies : where shall we go from now on ?

2018

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7232-4894 Abstract: In the last twenty years, there have been large advances in Celtic Studies — be it in Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Media, History, Politics, or Archaeology. These were not only due to new theoretical approaches and further development of interdisciplinary debate, but above all to new discoveries and innovative methods of analysis. The models for a so-called ‘Celtic World’ or a ‘Celtic Society’ have been thoroughly questioned and scholars acknowledge the importance of different local and regional developments. Very few now accept that medieval societies in Ireland and the Celtic-speaking parts of Britain preserve unchanged examples of so-called ‘archaism’. Societies are understood to be dynamic and are viewed in their own terms. Large regional variability is evident, particularly in cross-comparative analyses of Irish and Welsh medieval laws, vernacular literature and archaeology. Drawing from such a debate, we propose th...

Proceedings of the second European symposium in Celtic Studies: Abstracts

Raimund Karl & Katharina Möller (Hrsg. / Eds): Proceedings of the second European symposium in Celtic Studies, held at Prifysgol Bangor University from July 31st to August 3rd 2017, 2018

Contents Elisa Roma: Old Irish pronominal objects and their use in verbal pro-forms . . . 7 Alistair J. P. Sims; Celtic obsession in modern fantasy literature . . . 21 George Broderick Prof. Sir John Rhŷs in the Isle of Man (1886–1893): Linguistic material and texts . . . 35 Tatyana A. Mikhailova: Geneta Viscara: the element caro- in Gaulish compound names and inscriptions . . . 71 Marcel Bubert: Transcultural history and early medieval Ireland. Some reflections on European diversity, cultural transfer, and the history of knowledge . . . 87 Mary Leenane; Character creation in the Ulster Cycle . . . 103 James January-McCann; ‘Y gwsanaeth prydwysaidd yn y gwledydd yma’: Portrayals of Continental and English catholicism in sixteenth century Wales . . . 119 Doris Edel: What did Ailill and Medb really quarrel about? A legal approach to the ‘Pillow Talk’ . . . 131 Marco Budassi: The development of Insular Celtic double system of inflection . . . 141 Raimund Karl: Social changes in Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Wales: The beginning of Celtic Wales? . . . 159

New Perspectives in Celtic Studies

This volume provides accounts of well-established themes of general Celtic inquiry from new theoretical perspectives, in addition to addressing new areas of research that have remained largely unexplored. The collection includes contributions by both established and young scholars on diverse aspects of culture, literature and linguistics, reflecting the multidisciplinary character of current trends in Celtology. The linguistic section of the book includes chapters dealing with Welsh phonology and possible areas of influence of the Brittonic language on English, as well as with the issues of translating culture-specific aspects of medieval Welsh texts and the problems of standardising Irish orthography and font. The second part of the volume is devoted to literature and considers neglected, and heretofore unexplored, aspects of Welsh-language poetry, fiction and children’s literature, the work of John Cowper Powys, and Scottish film in the theoretical context of post-humanism. Approaching these issues from different angles and using different methodologies, the collection highlights the connections between long-established academic areas of interest and popular culture, broadening the horizon of Celtic scholarship. Chapter One Prolegomena to a Study of Welsh Vocalism Sabine Asmus and Cormac Anderson Chapter Two Diphthongs in the North of Wales PawełTomasz Czerniak Chapter Three Translating or Mistranslating Celtic Law in the Polish versions of the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi” Katarzyna Jaworska-Biskup Chapter Four Revision of the Most Known Celtic Features of English Ireneusz Kida Chapter Five An Irish Solution to an Irish Problem: The (Neverending) Issue of Standardising Irish Mark Ó Fionnáin Chapter Six Hiraeth as Allegorical Form: Fflur Dafydd’s Atyniad Aleksander Bednarski Chapter Seven Is this Machine Alive? Machine-like, Biotic, Autopoietic Systems in Contemporary Cinema Maciej Czerniakowski Chapter Eight A Postcolonial Traveller? A Take on the Poetry of Iwan Llwyd Siôn Pennar Chapter Nine Barti Ddu: A Welsh Colonial Hero in a Post-colonial Text? Awen Schiavone Chapter Ten “History is not to be trifled within this way”? Re-contextualising John Cowper Powys’ Owen Glendower (1940) Angelika Reichmann

The Grand 'Celtic' Story. Proceedings of the conference held in Brussels on 19 November 2005

The Grand 'Celtic' Story? Proceedings of the conference held in Brussels on 19 November 2005. With contributions by Simon James, Raimund Karl, Lauran Toorians, Claude Sterckx, Nico Roymans, 2007

The splendours of Hallstatt, the princess of Vix, the Waldalgesheim style, Ambiorix and Vercingetorix, the oppidum of the Titelberg, the Battersea shield, Lindow Man, the stories of the Mabinogion, the hill of Tara, Cuchulainn, the Brehon Laws, the Book of Kells… Separated in time and place, can they all be placed within the framework of one 'Celtic' metanarrative? Are they all part of the same grand, all-encompassing story? Metanarratives have not been very popular lately. In postmodern times, the tendency has been to replace them by small-scale, local narratives. In this context the rise of Celtosceptism in the nineties probably came as no surprise and it resulted in a heated debate. One of the advocates of Celtosceptism was Simon James: 'The Celts - it was all just a myth' the Financial Times headlined on 14/15 June 1997 (based on an article by Simon James in The British Museum Magazine 28, Summer 1997). James and other British archaeologists protested against the blanket use of the name Celts for people of different periods and from different regions, as this would wrongly suggest that 'The Celts' were one coherent people who covered a large part of Europe and whose culture remained static and unchanged from Hallstatt to Tara. Several other archaeologists participated in the debate, but Simon James was one of the few to express his views outside his normal academic habitat. With 'The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention?' (1999) he reached a fairly wide public. In academia the debate was often uneven, as many archaeologists and Celticists were not familiar with the theoretical background on which the Celtosceptics based their arguments. This problem was also recognised by Raimund Karl, who - at the XII. International Congress of Celtic Studies in Aberystwyth (2003) - pleaded for a theoretical foundation of Celtic Studies (Scale, self-similarity, strange attractors and cultural identities: some more thoughts on a theory for Celtic Studies). He explained, based on theoretical arguments, why in his opinion there was no reason to abandon the term 'Celtic'. Later that year he argued that where time and place do matter at the local level, they do much less so at the level of the grand narrative (TAG 2003 - Lampeter: Does time matter? Similar Iron and Middle Ages and the grand 'Celtic' narrative). Time was ready for a different type of debate, one between two scholars talking the same language and fighting with the same weapons. The idea for The Grand Celtic Story was born. Both Simon James and Raimund Karl kindly accepted our invitation to come to Brussels. The next step was to involve some local specialists in the debate and to ask them their views on the Grand Celtic Story, but this proved to be a much tougher job. Lauran Toorians immediately expressed his interest to participate, but our chairman, Claude Sterckx, needed some more pursuading; his bravery is much appreciated! The greatest reluctancy, however, came from the side of the archaeologists, who most of them feared that they could not offer any valuable contribution to the discussion. Also Nico Roymans preferred not to enter the debate on the legitimacy of a Celtic metanarrative as such, but the topic that he suggested was an interesting case study that deserved its place within the wider context of the discussion and was therefore considered a welcome contribution to the success of the conference. All speakers submitted a paper for this publication. Their paper is not necessarily a verbatim repeat of the paper presented at the conference, but may rather include later thoughts on ideas proposed by other speakers or on issues raised during the discussion. Anthoons, Greta & Clerinx, Herman (eds.). 'The Grand 'Celtic' Story? Proceedings of the conference held in Brussels on 19 November 2005.' With contributions by Simon James, Raimund Karl, Lauran Toorians, Claude Sterckx, Nico Roymans. Bruxelles, Société Belge d'Etudes Celtiques, 2007.