Home - Cambridge Scholars Publishing

The Irish Celebrating: Festive and Tragic Overtones
Editor: Marie-Claire Considère-Charon, Philippe Laplace, Michel Savaric
Date Of Publication: Jan 2008
Isbn13: 9781847184078
Isbn: 1-84718-407-3
The Irish Celebrating is a collection of essays which focuses on the complex dynamics of celebrating, its significance and its scope, through Ireland’s past and present experience. This book studies the dual aspects of celebrating —‘the festive’ and ‘the tragic’— which, while not necessarily functioning as a binary opposition, have long proved mutually constitutive of the Irish experience. Many different occasions and ways of celebrating are explored, be they associated with feasts, festivals, commemorations, re-enactments or mere merry-making.

Irish literature abounds with motifs, symbols, allusions and devices that stand as ample testimony to the essential part played by celebration in the creative process. Both the treatment of mythical themes and figures, and the perception of contrasted realities and moods, all linked in some way or another with celebrating, are examined in the works of Irish novelists, poets and playwrights.

If celebrations undeniably had a crucial role to play throughout Ireland’s troubled past, they continue to shape Irish society today, part and parcel of the deep social, economic and cultural changes it is currently experiencing. New representations of Irish identity as they are expressed through new forms of celebrating are explored in such varied contexts as emigration and immigration, alcohol addiction, church allegiance and European membership.

The way the nationalist and unionist communities have been celebrating their past in Northern Ireland, often complacently and ostentatiously, is a theme dealt with in the final section of this collection. Irish, English, French, Spanish, Italian and American scholars apply a broad range of interdisciplinary expertise to original and illuminating essays which will undoubtedly provoke a new insight into the interplay between current trends and issues and the long-established patterns that thread through the volume.

Marie-Claire Considère-Charon is part-time Professor at the Robert Schuman University, Strasbourg, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Franche-Comté.

Philippe Laplace is a lecturer in English and Scottish studies at the University of Franche-Comté.

Michel Savaric is a lecturer in British and Irish studies at the University of Franche-Comté.

Price Uk Gbp: 39.99
Price Us Usd: 59.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)

We recommend

Language and Literature
Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J. R. R. Tolkien

History
Arctic Discourses

Education
The Supportive School: Wellbeing and the Young Adolescent

Interesting reviews

From Navigating Music and Sound Education

“We rarely have the opportunity and time to engage with the practicalities of music teaching through the lens of evidence-based practice. This book provides us with a wonderful exception that is accessible to beginning and established teachers. It contains a wide range of stimulating and thought-provoking material that draws on real-world experiences and events, which are contextualised, informed and structured by theory. This is a powerful combination that we can visit again and again for insight and inspiration. Congratulations to all involved, particularly the editors for shaping such a valuable contribution!”
—Professor Graham F. Welch, University of London; President, International Society of Music Education

“Navigating music and sound education draws together a range of issues increasingly acknowledged to be at the basis of reflective and effective music learning and teaching: social settings, cultural dimensions, gender, indigeneity, varying cognitive approaches, inter-disciplinary connections, technology, types of learning, and creativity. It opens up areas of pedagogy that go beyond classroom methodology to acknowledge student individuality and encourage music learning and teaching grounded in the reality of students’ musical and social lives. It will be invaluable for those training to become educators and for teachers already in the field.”
—Associate Professor Peter Dunbar-Hall, University of Sydney

“This book brings an important contribution to music teacher education as it challenges the readers to rethink their paradigms of music education. It highlights the importance of preparing a reflective teacher, autonomous, creative and conscious of the multifaceted and multicultural locus in which they will work. The book also draws on the importance for music teachers to consider the context in which they work, and establish a dialog between local musical traditions, informal music practices and global trends of music teaching and learning. Most importantly, all chapters are in one way or another derived from research carried out on specific areas, thus stressing the importance of the research informed practice in music education.”
—Professor Liane Hentschke, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; International Society of Music Education Immediate Past President

Many readers will appreciate Steve Dillon and Kathy Hirche’s description of the future of education in their work with dynamic technological contexts.

Navigating Music and Sound Education is a wonderful guide and resource for pre-service music teachers, for teachers in the field, and for teacher educators.

It offers a range of fresh perspectives on the state of music education as it is and as it might be. Kari K Veblen

Navigating Music and Sound Education is an ambitious project which features current research from 20 individuals whose professional identities run the gamut from musician to songwriter to student to educator to music therapist to ethnomusicologist. The book’s scope is perhaps the most exciting aspect of Navigating Music and Sound Education.
Kari K Veblen
University of Western Ontario
British Journal of Music Education
October 2011