News Archive

The triadic relationship between poetry, human rights and literary translation is at the heart of the research project Republic of Conscience: Human Rights and Modern Irish Poetry upon which this presentation is based. Cognisant that Percy Bysshe Shelley claimed that “poets were the unacknowledged legislators of the world”, this presentation will critically examine the relationship between poetry, human rights, and activism in an interconnected world. What is the role of the poet in times of great crises? To what extent, if at all, have Irish poets engaged critically with the concept of human rights itself? What is the relevance of the national paradigm in an era of global networks where information, capital, goods, and discourse transverse geographical and political borders? This presentation will also include a discussion of the opportunities inherent in, and the challenges posed by, interdisciplinary research of this type.