Round Table: 30 years of ABEI and 10 years of WB Yeats Chair of Irish Studies

The round table commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the Brazilian Association of Irish Studies (ABEI) and tenth year of the W.B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies was part of the XIV ABEI and II AEIS Symposium of Irish Studies “The State of the Art: Local and Global Contexts in Dialogue”, and was held on August 15, 2019. The session was comprised by Dr Munira H. Mutran, honorary president of ABEI and director of the W.B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies; Dr Laura P.Z. de Izarra, coordinator of the W.B. Yeats Chair and advisory member of ABEI; Dr Rosalie R. Haddad, advisory member of ABEI and researcher in the W.B. Yeats Chair, Alessandra Cristina Rigonato, PhD candidate at the University of São Paulo, and Eduardo Kumamoto, graduate from the University of São Paulo and Master in Literary Translation at Trinity College Dublin. The discussion, which revolved around the history of the founding of both ABEI and the Chair, and their current developments, was conducted by Dr Mariana Bolfarine, head of ABEI and researcher at the W.B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies. Resumo: A mesa redonda que celebrou os trinta anos da ABEI e dez anos da Cátedra de Estudos Irlandeses W.B. Yeats fez parte do XIV ABEI and II AEIS Symposium on Irish Studies “The State of the Art: Local and Global Contexts in Dialogue”, que teve lugar em 15 de agosto de 2019. A mesa esteve composta por Dra. Munira H. Mutran, presidente honorária da ABEI e diretora da Cátedra W.B. Yeats; Dra. Laura P.Z. de Izarra, coordenadora da Cátedra W.B. Yeats e membro Consultivo da ABEI; Dra. Rosalie R. Haddad, membro Consultivo da ABEI e pesquisadora da Cátedra W.B. Yeats, Alessandra Cristina Rigonato, doutoranda na Universidade de São Paulo e Eduardo Kumamoto, graduado em Letras pela Universidade de São Paulo e Mestre em Tradução Literária pela Trinity College Dublin. A discussão, que girou em torno da história de formação da ABEI e da Cátedra e de seus desdobramentos atuais, foi conduzida pela Dra. Mariana Bolfarine, presidente da ABEI e pesquisadora da Cátedra W.B. Yeats. Mariana Bolfarine: As head of the Brazilian Association of Irish Studies (ABEI), I thank you all for attending this round table, held at the XIV ABEI and II AEIS Symposium of Irish Studies in South America, in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of ABEI and ten years of the W.B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies, coordinated by Dr. Laura P.Z. Izarra. I am especially grateful for Munira H. Mutran, Laura P.Z. Izarra, Rosalie R. Haddad, Alessandra Cristina Rigonato and Eduardo Kumamoto for taking part in this session. The growth of the Association, which is evident by the increasing number of members, is an indicator of interest in Irish studies in Brazil. I open the floor to Dr Munira Mutran, one of the founders of ABEI, who has witnessed the transformations that the Association has undergone for over thirty years. Munira: The title of my talk for this round table to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of ABEI, and ten years of the W.B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies is “Memories of ABEI in a few minutes”. Once, during a conference in Bahia, the Ambassador Séan Hoy read Ulysses in one minute. Thus, I will remember ABEI in a few minutes. The Association came into being with a small group of dedicated students and professors, such as Maria Helena Kopschitz, my friend (Fluminense Federal University) who collaborated extensively; from this small group emerged an association of status and international connections never dreamed of. Going back to the faraway past of 1972, I started to correspond with Sean O’Faolain about my doctoral dissertation. After its conclusion, I devoted myself to teaching, research and postgraduate supervision in Irish literature. At that time, English courses in all Brazilian universities, including the University of São Paulo, were basically made up of English and North American literatures. I wondered: how would it be possible to force the presence of Ireland into this dominant scenario? Let me tell you my strategy: optional and postgraduate courses were offered, as well as MA and PhD degrees on Irish Studies. After concluding their research, former students would spread the knowledge acquired here at USP in their own institutions. For that purpose, I chose two moments, two cultural moments – integrated projects – so that all participants would interact in their work in progress. The first project was “Irish Theatre in the First Half of the twentieth Century”, and perhaps it is my opportunity to mention their names: Thomas van Dijck, from Paraíba, focused on Brian Friel; Rosane Beyer, from Paraná, on Dion Boucicault; Rosalie Haddad, from Rio de Janeiro, on George Bernard Shaw. Fernanda Sepa, from Guarulhos, on Yeats; Geraldo Ferreira de Lima, from Bahia, on Synge; Gisela Borges Manfio, from PUC-São Paulo, on Lennox Robinson; Peter Harris, from UNESP, on Séan O’Casey; Beatriz Kopschitz, from Niterói, on Denis Johnston; and Domingos Nunes, actor and director – a valuable addition to a group working on drama, who wrote about Stewart Parker. In fiction, in the second cultural moment, we started with Laura Izarra, from Santo Amaro College at that time, who developed her studies on James Stephens; Rosicler Diniz, from Santos, on Elizabeth Bowen; Heleno Godoy, from Goiás, on Flann O’Brien; Noélia Borges, from Bahia, on Kate O’Brien; and Rosalie Haddad with her PhD on Bernard Shaw’s novels, very little known in criticism. I have shared my memories with you because it was this small group which gave shape to ABEI in 1989. You can say, how daring! How bold these people were! We felt it was necessary to reach the general public as well as in the Bloomsday celebrations from 1988 to 2004, co-organized with Haroldo de Campos, leader of the movement of concrete poetry in Brazil. I imagine these celebrations, since 1988, have inspired Bloomsday celebrations that are now flourishing throughout Brazil. As to publications, we began with the ABEI Newsletter whose objective was to announce what was happening in terms of Irish Studies in the country; its main feature was a challenge to important Brazilian translators, namely, Benedito Ferri de Barros, Aíla de Oliveira Gomes, Paulo Vizioli, Solange Ribeiro de Oliveira, Viviana Bosi and José Paulo Paes to take the same poem, say, by Michael Longley, by Seamus Heaney, or by Yeats, and translate it into Portuguese. Their different approach to the difficulties offered, inspired translation courses in Brazil to further explore the solutions found by them. After thirteen successful volumes, the Newsletter became the ABEI Journal, The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies. At this point, a question was asked: how to feed the ABEI Journal? With the ongoing collaboration of visiting scholars, by means of an informal agreement – which today has become formal – with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). The DFA has continuously supported the influx of academics from abroad who still support us in terms of bibliographies, books, and co-supervision. Here, too, I would like to mention the names of the first visitors: Maurice Harmon, Terence Brown, Declan Kiberd, Nicholas Grene, Christopher Murray, Margaret Kelleher, Joe Lee. Among these names, I highlight that of Maureen O’Rourke Murphy, who first came to Brazil in 1989 and has been with us for exactly thirty years. In all these years of teaching and researching Irish Studies, I felt very isolated at the Department of Modern Languages at the University São Paulo, because most of colleagues were in the fields of English and American literature. I had the support of the students, of course; however, they were only temporarily connected with my university. But the story had a happy end. In 1996, Laura Izarra, my former student, and my friend, became my colleague and together, with the support of undergraduates, and graduate students, of alumni and of colleagues from other universities in Brazil and South America, we have been working for ABEI and for the W.B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies, of which Laura will now to talk about. Laura: No. I think you could continue talking, Munira; you recovered touching memories, not just because of the data you brought up, but especially the heart and the courage to carry on with Irish studies. In fact, it was because of Irish Literature that you became an inspiration to me, and that is why when I arrived in Brazil, and at USP, when I knocked on the door I already had the idea of working with Irish literature, but who could help me? Advise me? Professor Vizioli, who was Munira’s advisor, said: “You have to wait for my student, who is returning from Ireland, so that you can start your studies in this area”. It was quite providential to find Munira, and to share this bond with her, even as a student, strengthened by a common passion that was Irish literature. We have now arrived at the Chair. I will not repeat myself about the background of ABEI, but I was very happy to be placed, along with Rosicler and the group from the second cultural moment. I believe it is great because it makes me feel younger. It is thanks to these events that Munira has conveyed to us, along with the collaboration of visiting professors, that we reached 2009, when we felt the need to institutionalize Irish studies, given that we were already beginning to work with the intersection between history and literature. I remember that we were at a conference in Dublin when we decided to speak with the DFA, and I suggested: “should we propose a Chair?” Munira looked at me and said: “but a Chair?”, I said we could propose the idea, and at most, we would get no as an answer. But this proposal was really understood and accepted, because an association linked to an institution does not, in fact, configure institutionalization. The Chair could become a centre for Irish studies as in other universities, such as the School of Irish Studies at Concordia University in Canada, whose director is Michael Keneally; or as the Keou