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the 2012 babel lecture series: tradition and transformation

Tuesdays at 6.30pm in the town hall theatre studio

 

Prof Bill Richardson, 31st January 2012, 6.30pm to 8pm

Tradition and Transformation: Jorge Luis Borges and the meaning of life 

In our society, political, economic, religious and social authority-figures have been discredited, leading us to question everything. Traditional assumptions about what is right or wrong, or good or bad, are treated with scepticism. In this context, the work of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) is particularly interesting, given his take on tradition, inherited beliefs and the pursuit of truth. Variously considered to have been an arch-sceptic or a seeker of the divine, a political reactionary or a radical subversive, his literary trajectory went from 1920s avant-gardism to the production of classical poems and stories. The latter are short tales (such as those contained in the collection Labyrinths) that either appear simple and contain surprising complexity, or are deceptively complex since, despite their elaborate referencing of classic literary texts or philosophical and historical sources, they revolve around basic home truths. Most of all, Borges never lets us away with easy answers: playfully or poignantly, he teases us with the promise of a glimpse into fundamental realities, while he takes us on an intellectual journey to the limits of our imagination, wistfully depositing us at the edge of hope and despair.

In this talk, we explore some of the ways in which the preoccupation with the quest for truth plays out in Borges’s writings. Liberally sprinkled with short quotations from his work, the talk will range over questions about heroes and villains; God and the supernatural; the nature of mind and thought, language and literature, power and politics, sex and gender, and, last but not least, time and space.

Dr Lillis Ó Laoire, 28th February 2012, 6.30pm – 8pm

Transforming Tradition: The Career of Joe Heaney, Sean-nós singer 1919-1984

Hailing from Carna, in Co. Galway, Joe Heaney (Seosamh Ó hÉanaí) was the most renowned traditional Gaelic singer of the twentieth century. Based in the USA from the 1960s he performed his songs and stories for large and small audiences, in venues such as The Sydney Opera House among others. In 1982, he was among the first group of artists to be honoured by the National Endowment of the Arts Award, presented by the US Government for outstanding achievement in traditional arts. In this lecture, Heaney’s engagement with and manipulation of the tropes of modernity and tradition will be examined, to understand how in performing his tradition, he simultaneously transformed it into a modern, professional art form. His career encompasses a paradox: his stagecraft and manipulation of form, hallmarks of modernity, disguised by the deployment of his accent, the Irish language and the modal airs of his songs as the epitome of tradition.

Dr Jacopo Bisagni, 27th March 2012, 6.30pm – 8pm

’Returning’ to Babel: where did human languages really come from?

The Biblical story of the Tower of Babel famously presents the diversity of human languages as the result of a divine curse, a punishment for man’s excess of pride. This ancient story may be seen as a very early attempt to answer some fundamental questions: where do human languages come from? Why are languages so incredibly different from each other? And why don’t we all speak one and the same language?

In this lecture, I shall present some of the answers which modern scholarship offers to these questions, showing how language diversity and change, far from being random ’degenerations’, can in fact help us realise that the linguistic traditions of many European countries (including Ireland) have much more in common than many people think.

    

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