Making 1916: Material and Visual Culture of the Easter Rising - Hardcover

Lisa Godson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1781381224 ISBN 13: 9781781381229

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2015

Synopsis

The 1916 Rising is the pivotal yet highly contested moment in Irish history when militant republicans sought to seize political power from Britain, and declared - though unsuccessfully in the short term - an independent state. Credited with inspiring independence movements in other former colonies, the Rising has been the subject of histories from the political to the literary. Yet, the rich variety of objects and images associated with the Rising - from buttons and medals to souvenir postcards - have not formed a focus of academic research. This volume of essays will examine the material and visual culture of the Rising to consider how these illuminate changing ways of engaging with and understanding this iconic event. Family keepsakes such as autograph books from Frongoch internment camp, informal souvenirs such as pieces of rubble from Dublin's General Post Office, and 'official' souvenirs such as photo booklets each played a significant role in the construction of individual and collective memory. In placing material and visual culture centre stage, this book will examine how the spaces, objects and images associated with the Rising are caught up in processes of identity production in both public and private space as changing socio-political conditions generated new understandings of 1916 and its aftermath. It addresses the 'things' of 1916 not as mere illustrations of history, but as having agency and effect on material practices central to contested concepts of identity and the creation of social memory.

About this title

Review:

'A short review cannot do justice to the variety of topics in and quality of contributors to Making 1916. The decision to have short case studies gives the volume a lively energy and it bursts with ideas and insights...it is a real achievement to have created a book of essays of such substance and originality.' Australasian Journal of Irish Studies 'This is an insightful and well-edited anthology, which offers material and ideas not available elsewhere.' Oxford Journals Reviews 'This important book explores the material and visual culture around the Rising. Lisa Godson and Joanna Bruck have assembled essays from 23 contributors to comment on a plethora of objects, clothes, photographs, paintings, documents and buildings that provide us with a new set of angles on the events that convulsed Ireland 100 years ago.' Catriona Crowe, The Irish Times

About the Author:

Lisa Godson is Lecturer at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Joanna Bruck is Reader in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol.

About this edition

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1781381224
• ISBN 13: 9781781381229
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Lisa Godson, Joanna Bruck