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Terror and Irish Modernism
This chapter is in the book Terror and Irish Modernism
Notes1. gothic double binds, or, irish terrorists confront an unholy union1. In fact, the saint’s role as an icon of homoerotic desire owes much to the Renaissance paintings by Reni and by Giovanni Bassi (Il Sodoma). The appro-priation of Saint Sebastian as a gay icon has a long history, but becomes an explicit subject of intellectual conversation after the 1909 publication of George Eekhoud’s article, “Saint Sébastien Dans la Peinture.” See George Eekhoud, “Saint Sébastien Dans la Peinture,” Akdemos 1 (February 15, 1909): 171–75.2. Chris Baldick’s 1989 “Introduction” to the Oxford Classics edition of Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer problematizes the claims about Melmoth’sstatus as the “last—and possibly the greatest—of the Gothic novels in the line from Walpole through Radcliffe and Lewis” (ix). For Baldick, such claims limit the boundaries of the genre and of Maturin’s various borrowings from nonGothic sources. Baldick, Chris, “Introduction,” Melmoth the Wanderer (New York: Oxford UP, 1989): vii–xix.3. Quoted in Charles Coote, History of the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland; With an Introductory Survey of Hibernian Affairs, Traced from the Times of the Celtic Colonisation (London: S. Ham-ilton, 1802), 31–32.4. This is the basic argument of Richard Kearney’s “Myth and Moth-erland,” Ireland’s Field Day, ed. Seamus Deane, 61–80 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986). 5. See Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, trans. Robert Hullot-Kentor (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 232. 6. If the marriage was a particularly unhappy one for the Irish, it was also a source of anxiety for the British, who, as the economic benefi ciaries of the Acts of Union, faced the diffi culties of negotiating the contentious, occa-sionally explosive politics of the “Irish Question” throughout the nineteenth century. For a markedly thorough discussion of the economic repercussions of Irish colonization during the era of the Acts of Union, see R. D. Colli-son Black’s Economic Thought and the Irish Question, 1817–1870 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1960).
© 2009 State University of New York

Notes1. gothic double binds, or, irish terrorists confront an unholy union1. In fact, the saint’s role as an icon of homoerotic desire owes much to the Renaissance paintings by Reni and by Giovanni Bassi (Il Sodoma). The appro-priation of Saint Sebastian as a gay icon has a long history, but becomes an explicit subject of intellectual conversation after the 1909 publication of George Eekhoud’s article, “Saint Sébastien Dans la Peinture.” See George Eekhoud, “Saint Sébastien Dans la Peinture,” Akdemos 1 (February 15, 1909): 171–75.2. Chris Baldick’s 1989 “Introduction” to the Oxford Classics edition of Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer problematizes the claims about Melmoth’sstatus as the “last—and possibly the greatest—of the Gothic novels in the line from Walpole through Radcliffe and Lewis” (ix). For Baldick, such claims limit the boundaries of the genre and of Maturin’s various borrowings from nonGothic sources. Baldick, Chris, “Introduction,” Melmoth the Wanderer (New York: Oxford UP, 1989): vii–xix.3. Quoted in Charles Coote, History of the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland; With an Introductory Survey of Hibernian Affairs, Traced from the Times of the Celtic Colonisation (London: S. Ham-ilton, 1802), 31–32.4. This is the basic argument of Richard Kearney’s “Myth and Moth-erland,” Ireland’s Field Day, ed. Seamus Deane, 61–80 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986). 5. See Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, trans. Robert Hullot-Kentor (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 232. 6. If the marriage was a particularly unhappy one for the Irish, it was also a source of anxiety for the British, who, as the economic benefi ciaries of the Acts of Union, faced the diffi culties of negotiating the contentious, occa-sionally explosive politics of the “Irish Question” throughout the nineteenth century. For a markedly thorough discussion of the economic repercussions of Irish colonization during the era of the Acts of Union, see R. D. Colli-son Black’s Economic Thought and the Irish Question, 1817–1870 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1960).
© 2009 State University of New York

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Gothic Double Binds, Or, Irish Terrorists Confront an Unholy Union 1
  5. The Wrong Marriage 27
  6. The Revolution Within 59
  7. Overcoming Allegory 87
  8. Engendering a Cartesian Gothic 125
  9. The Poetics of Fear 169
  10. Notes 175
  11. Bibliography 193
  12. Index 205
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438428345-008

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Gothic Double Binds, Or, Irish Terrorists Confront an Unholy Union 1
  5. The Wrong Marriage 27
  6. The Revolution Within 59
  7. Overcoming Allegory 87
  8. Engendering a Cartesian Gothic 125
  9. The Poetics of Fear 169
  10. Notes 175
  11. Bibliography 193
  12. Index 205
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