Nicholas Allen on Blue Humanities and Irish Literature
On this episode of the Free Range Podcast, host Mike Livermore has a conversation with literary scholar Nicholas Allen about his recent book “Ireland, Literature and the Coast: Seatangled”.
Episode is an appropriate teaching tool for but not limited to the following topics & courses: Irish Literature and Culture, Cultural Studies, Environmental Humanities.
Discussion Questions
- What metaphorical roles can geographic features like the coast play in literature and cultural imagination? How do authors use settings like the coast to explore ideas of liminality, escape, colonial influence, etc.?
- How does the “blue humanities” framework offer a new way to analyze and understand literary texts? What insights does it reveal that other approaches may not? What are its limitations?
- The hosts talk about literature having both metaphorical and material/economic impacts on culture. Do you agree? How might we distinguish or connect the “real” and the metaphorical in analyzing literary representations?
- What is the relationship between literature and national identity? How do postcolonial and environmental perspectives complicate traditional ideas of national literatures?
- What new perspectives or connections did you gain from the discussion about bringing an ecological lens to Irish literature? How might this apply to other cultural/geographic contexts?
Additional Readings
- Ireland, Literature, and the Coast: Seatangled by Nicholas Allen
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