1 Histories of Imagination: Critical and Creative Approaches To Irish Art Writing In the Twentieth Century Rory McAteer, BSc. Hons., B.A. Hons., M.A. Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Ulster University Thesis submitted to Ulster University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2019 The word count does not exceed 100,000 2 Table of Contents Preface................................................................................................6 Acknowledgements.............................................................................7 Summary of thesis..............................................................................8 Abstract...............................................................................................11 Introduction…………………………………………………………13 General aims and research objectives........................................15 Methodology..................................................................................19 Explanation of title......................................................................24 Definitions of modernism.............................................................25 Creative writing as a source of art writing.................................30 Chapter One: Place, Imagination, and Irish Art Writing 1.1 Introduction...........................................................................42 1.2 Definitions of place................................................................48 1.3 Lucy Lippard and the ‘lure of the local’..............................50 1.4 Declan McGonagle and regionalism ..………...…………..53 1.5 The cosmopolitan impulse.....................................................54 1.6 Imagination, emigration, exile and the diaspora.................57 3 Chapter Two: Historiography of Irish Art Writing in the Twentieth Century 2.1 Introduction.............................................................................65 2.2 Definitions of art writing........................................................66 2.3 Overview of the background to the historiography of Irish art writing in the twentieth century......................................67 2.4 Writing Irish art histories......................................................71 2.5 James Elkins and art history as writing...............................75 2.6 Hayden White and the linguistic turn...................................76 2.7 W.J.T. Mitchell and the word/image debate........................82 2.8 Creative writing and art history............................................84 Chapter Three: The Philosophy of Imagination in Irish Art Writing 3.1 Introduction.............................................................................87 3.2 Definitions of imagination......................................................87 3.3 Twentieth century philosophical perspectives and Irish art writing...............................................................89 3.4 The sublime in the word/image debate.................................92 3.5 Richard Kearney on imagination...........................................94 3.6 The hermeneutic imagination................................................98 3.7 Towards a theory of imagination..........................................101 4 Chapter Four: Critical Irish Art Writing and Imagination Part One 4.1 Introduction............................................................................106 4.2 W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, and imagination..........................107 4.3 George Russell (Ӕ) and the Irish imagination.....................111 4.4 Mainie Jellett and Thomas Mac Greevy..............................113 4.5 Samuel Beckett on imagination and art writing...................118 Chapter Five: Critical Irish Art Writing and Imagination Part two 5.1 Introduction................................................................................124 5.2 Rosc and the interplay between Irish literature and art.......125 5.3 Róisín Kennedy and “The Irish Imagination” (1971)...........128 5.4 Brian O’Doherty and Richard Kearney on Louis le Brocquy...................................................................132 5.5 Tom Duddy and Irish art criticism..........................................137 5.6 Richard Kearney, Transitions..................................................139 5.7 Lucy Cotter and Gavin Murphy...............................................141 Chapter Six: Creative Writing, Imagination, and Irish Art Writing in Early Twentieth Century Ireland 6.1 Introduction.................................................................................144 6.2 James Joyce, Ulysses, imagination and cultural memory........146 6.3 Brian O’Nolan / Flann O’Brien.................................................152 5 6.4 Samuel Beckett and Imagine Dead Imagine.............................155 6.5 Brian Friel and Faith Healer.....................................................157 Conclusion................................................................................................160 Bibliography.............................................................................................169 6 PREFACE Before setting out the results of this study I should give my personal reasons for undertaking this research. I had a sustained interest in literature before I began studying art and art history and this led me to a visual art practice which explored the interconnections between literature and art. For example, in my final degree show I exhibited a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses suspended upside down in a tank of water drawn from the River Liffey in Dublin. I had entitled the piece Stream as a visual pun on Joyce’s stream of consciousness technique. In the bottom of the tank I had placed an aerator, creating bubbles which rose to the surface of the tank, gently agitating the pages of the book, and causing the print on the pages to dissolve over time in the Liffey water. The idea of physically returning the words of Ulysses to its source of inspiration was intended to be a symbolic manifestation of the close imaginative connections between literature and visual art. So, when I was given the opportunity to research Irish art writing in the twentieth century, it was the imaginative dimensions of all types of writing, art historical, critical, creative and experimental which interested me most and are explored here. It was not my intention, however, to try to arrive at a definitive conclusion about the role of imagination in Irish art writing; it is too fluid a concept and indeed its most important value lies in its malleability to new approaches. The purpose of the thesis, therefore, was to amplify the processes of imagination in all types of art writing and to make a case for considering some creative writing as part of a history of imagination. 7 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my current supervisors Howard Wright and Alaister Herron, and my previous supervisors Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes and Liam Kelly, for their help and support throughout the long gestation of this thesis. I particularly thank them for their patience, endurance, and forbearance during the interruptions caused by my periods of ill health. For this reason too I would also like to thank the administrative staff at the Research Office and the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for their assistance in obtaining extensions of time to enable me to finish. I also thank my fellow student in the field of Irish art writing, Emma Mai Dwan O’Reilly for her support and for sending me her completed thesis. I am also grateful to the library staff for assisting me in obtaining books and other material I requested. I would also like to thank Tom Mitchell who gave generously of his time when I brought him to Derry in June 2010 following a lecture he gave at a Word/Image conference in Ulster University. His reading suggestions and encouragement on the value of research into imagination was important to me at a time of doubt. Similarly I would like to thank Ian Buchannan for his help when I discussed my research with him at a seminar in Belfast and for the readings which he sent me later. Finally I would like to thank my friends and family for their support and encouragement during some difficult times. Most especially I thank my wife, Claire, and my sons, Cormac and Paul, for their faith in me, their love, and their practical help. 8 Summary of thesis The main title of this thesis, Histories of Imagination, is intended to be a broad imaginative framework within which to consider a range of creative and critical approaches to Irish art writing in the twentieth century. The introduction sets out the purpose and general aims and objectives of the thesis, followed by an explanation of the methodology used, before giving an explanation of the title and subtitle. It then sets out to define modernism and, because the nature of the research is interdisciplinary, this is first defined in an art historical context and then in a literary context. At the end of the introduction, under the heading ‘creative writing as a source of art writing’, the historical context of how visual art and literature were regarded in Ireland in the twentieth century is sketched out before proceeding to outline the case for considering art writing within a history of imagination. Chapter one addresses place, imagination and Irish art writing and explores how cultural imagination in Ireland has been suffused with changing notions of place and space over the last century. The chapter begins with a range of definitions of place