academic writing
pieces marked with an asterisk (*) are peer-reviewed.
in English
- review of Patricia A. McKillip and the Art of Fantasy World-Building, Audrey Isabel Taylor
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 32.1 (2021): 119-122
- short critical review.
- Meek Lines: “Màiri Mhòr @ 200”
An Naidheachd Againne 37.2 (2021): 18-19
- translation of a reflection on Dòmhnall E. Meek’s poem “Màiri Mhòr @ 200”.
- Forms in abundance
An Naidheachd Againne 37.1 (2021): 1-2
- translation of a brief description of my poetry collection cruthan that was shortlisted in the unpublished manuscript category at the Gaelic Literature Awards in 2020.
- faclan-fair(g)e (Cuan-bhriathradair a thèid còmhla ri “An Cuan” Ailein Dòmhnallaich — An oceanic lexicon to accompany Ailean Dòmhnallach’s “An Cuan”)
Artis Natura 1 (2017)
- this short essay (or reflective piece), drawing on the water vocabulary in Ailean Dòmhnallach’s poem “An Cuan”, was published online in the journal Artis Natura, but apparently their website has disappeared. this link leads to the Wayback Machine.
in Gaelic
- *‘Mae llyfr yn ddelwedd o fywyd’: Fìorachd is ficsean ann an An Dosan Norma NicLeòid is Melog Mihangel Morgan
Proceedings of the Association of Celtic Students, vols. VIII and IX, deas. Julieta Abella is Freya Smith (n.p.: Association of Celtic Students, 2023), 93-105
- This essay examines two novels, An Dosan (2015), by Norma NicLeòid, and Melog (1997), by Mihangel Morgan, to examine how they represent and interrogate the relationship between ‘reality’ and ‘fiction’. By analyzing these two texts together, it attempts to show that literary texts can be useful as ‘theoretical’ sources, and by putting a Gaelic novel in conversation with a Welsh novel, it attempts to demonstrate a ‘Celtic comparative literature’. These novels raise important questions about the broad division drawn between ‘reality’ and ‘fiction’, questions that are connected with contemporary political issues: the impact of settler colonialism in North America, the relationship between society and ‘mental illness’, and the dangers and possibilities of nationalism in the present.
- Meek Lines: “Màiri Mhòr @ 200”
An Naidheachd Againne 37.2 (2021): 18-19
- Gaelic original of “Meek Lines: ‘Màiri Mhòr @ 200’”.
- *A’dhionnsaigh Mion-Litreachais: Deleuze is Guattari agus Litreachas na Gàidhlig
COMHARTaighde 7 (2021)
- This article considers the use of the poststructuralist literary theory of the French theorists Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, particularly their famous essay ‘Qu’est-ce qu’une littérature mineure?’ [‘What is a minor literature?’]. Beginning with a brief explanation of the concept of ‘minor literature’ and then, with reference both to difficulties that appear within the essay itself and to criticisms from other scholars (Glissant and Gauvin 2010, Jamison 2018, and others), this article will attempt to answer a particular question: how could this essay – and modern and postmodern literary theory in general – be helpful to us in analyzing Gaelic literature? It is argued that theories developed in dominant languages need marginalized language viewpoints, which can, on the one hand, resolve some of their acknowledged difficulties and, on the other hand, reveal new problems and gaps that dominant-language literary theorists do not consider at all. At the same time, however, it will be argued that the change in context from French to Gaelic changes the theorie, as well. Several Gaelic literary texts will be briefly analyzed (poems by Mona NicLeòid Wagner and Lodaidh MacFhionghain and a novel by Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul), to see how Gaelic literature itself deals with its status as a ‘minor language’ and ‘minor literature’, in Deleuze and Guattari’s terms. Ultimately, it will be argued that modern literary theories can be useful in analyzing Gaelic literature but that they must be adapted or reworked in a minor(ity)-language context, and broader questions will be raised about how these theories might be useful beyond just modern/contemporary literature.
- Cruthan am pailteas
An Naidheachd Againne 37.1 (2021): 1-2
- Gaelic original of “Forms in abundance”.
- ‘rudan cudromach a ràdh / ann an cànan neo-chudromach’: sgrìobhadh sa Ghàidhlig san latha an-diugh
Cànan is Cultar/Language & Culture: Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 9, deas. Meg Bateman is Richard A.V. Cox (Slèite: Clò Ostaig, 2019), 153-164
- At the end of her poem ‘ain-cianalas’, the Gaelic poet Mona NicLeòid Wagner says, ‘uaireannan cha dèan e ciall / rudan cudromach a ràdh / ann an cànan neo-chudromach’ [‘sometimes it doesn’t make sense / to say important things / in an unimportant language’] (2015, 46). This is the primary question of this analysis: what is the sense in writing in Gaelic – or in any minority language – today? How should literature that comes from a place in ‘the literary world’ that will always be ‘isolated’, and texts and authors who reject the expectation that they will be ‘recognized’ by a literary ‘center’ be dealt with? With reference to theoretical works on ‘world literature’ (Apter 2013; Casanova 2009; Melas 2007), and especially to Pàdraig MacAoidh and Niall O’Gallagher’s preface to Sùil air an t-Saoghal (2013), I propose MacAoidh and O’Gallagher’s image of Gaelic literature as a ‘sruth, a’ co-mheasagachadh ri sruthan agus aibhnichean eile’ [‘stream, mixing with other streams and rivers’] (2013, v) as a basis for literary analysis of Gaelic texts. Beginning from this idea, I look at two poems, ‘ain-cianalas’ by Mona NicLeòid Wagner (2015) and ‘Aistriúchán’ by Gearóid Mac Lochlainn (1999), a poet from Northern Ireland, to see if the questions that emerge from this context can be answered. Wagner and Mac Lochlainn emphasize the poet’s isolation in a minority language, but both of them still write their poetry in Scottish Gaelic and Irish. How can the impulse towards universalism be rejected, and what does this rejection mean? How, then, can we account for the situation of Gaelic literature today, in its all its complexity and contradictions?
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