| Summary: | <p>Medieval narratives that had been celebrated in the Gaelic Revival (c.1880-1916) became a tool of republican self-fashioning in the revolutionary era (c.1912-23). As revolutionary nationalism developed into a movement distinct from Revivalism, it acquired its own flavour of engagement with medieval history and literature. This project argues for the continued cultural relevance of medieval narratives throughout the revolutionary period. Employing a hybrid methodology and incorporating a wide range of source material, this study adds nuance to our understanding of the transition from Revival to Revolution. The project demonstrates that medieval narratives not only remained a part of revolutionary culture after the Rising, but were selected, reimagined and deployed in ways specific to this context.</p>
<p>This project brings together the fields of medieval Irish literature, nineteenth and early twentieth century translations and twentieth century Irish history. Ultimately, it is a historiographical project, but an interdisciplinary one. The project interrogates how literature and mythology circulated in the national imaginarium and shaped identity. The research framework suits the multifaceted nature of the subject.</p>
<p>As Joep Leerssen wrote in <i>Remembrance and Imagination</i>, ‘tradition’ is not ‘a discreet heirloom’ but ‘a vast and chaotic curiosity shop.’ Fin de siècle revolutionaries in Ireland inherited a wealth of narratives that took multiple forms in the middle ages and were then passed through centuries of time and translations. Entering twentieth century culture, the tales were mediated not only through translation but through their modern audiences’ values. New translations, retellings, and derivative works of art–and the context of each reader’s own particular <i>Weltanschauung</i>–all create new frameworks for using old narratives in the service of identity.</p>
<p>Following the Revival, the medieval cultural inheritance continued to solidify identity and advance the political case for independence. Medieval narratives allowed people to understand, define and legitimise the present in terms of the past.</p>
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