Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - Amanda Tucker, professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, recently traveled to Ireland for two weeks to complete archival work for her book and attend a conference.

"The conference and my book work were timely, so I was able to combine them into one trip," said Tucker.

Tucker already traveled to Ireland to research information for her book, but she needed to view a manuscript in order to finish part of her research. During the first weeks of her stay, she studied unpublished material by Helen Waddell, a woman who was born in Japan and became a well-known Medieval Latin scholar in Ireland.

"Waddell is a classic case of someone whose transnational work is greatly underappreciated and neglected," said Tucker. "I looked at her work from the 1910s and 1920s and there are some great stories about her growing up in Japan and a great collection of fairy tales from around the world."

Tucker's book is about transnational cultural flows between Ireland and other parts of the word in the 20th century. Most literary histories of Ireland focus on the way that writers engaged with nationalist projects, but Tucker argues that 20th century Irish citizens were increasingly confronted with globalization and its consequences. The book looks at Irish authors who lived or worked in a variety of locations, such as Argentina, Japan and Spain, to see how these experiences affected their representations of Ireland. The book links together three periods of Irish transnational Irish literature: the supposedly nation-centered writing before the country's independence in 1922, the literature of the exiled and expatriates following the establishment of the Free State and finally, the explosion of multicultural Irish literature over the last 15 or so years, when there has been a dramatic increase in inward migration in Ireland.

Tucker is also studying the relationships between globalization and the nation-state. For example, she will look at how people are crossing national borders, but not erasing them, and tie this information into globalization and geographic diversity.

During her trip, Tucker also gave a paper at the annual American Conference for Irish Studies meeting, which was held in Galway, Ireland. One of the subjects the conference discussed was the dramatic increase of emigration into Ireland in the last few years, a topic that is covered in Tucker's book.

"The huge influx of immigrants to Ireland is not something that most Americans are aware of," said Tucker. "Emigrants from Nigeria and Poland, as well as other places, are entering Ireland at a rate that is similar to the emigration to the United States. This makes it a really interesting time for Irish culture and an interesting time for my work on transitional studies in Ireland."

Tucker was even able to observe this influx of rich culture in Ireland during her stay.

"There are many non-Irish people living in Ireland today," said Tucker. "Certain areas of Dublin like Parnell Street have become very multicultural with shops and services catering to specific immigrant communities. There is also a Nigerian theater troupe, Arambe, performing in Dublin. Culture is constantly in flux and it is great to see all the cultural differences and changes happening in Ireland."

Tucker is excited to apply her experiences and information she learned in Ireland to the UWP classroom, especially to bring the issue of multiculturalism to British and Irish literatures. According to Tucker, it will be great to supplement canonical writers with the authors like Nigerian-Irish writer, Bisi Adigun, or the British-Bengali writer, Monica Ali. Tucker hopes students will learn about muliticulturalism from a different perspective by bringing in a wider range of voices in the classroom.

For more information, contact Tucker at (608) 342-6104 or tuckeram@uwplatt.edu.

Contact: Amanda Tucker, professor, UWP English Department, (608) 342-6104, tuckeram@uwplatt.edu Written by: Morgan Spitzer, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, spitzerm@uwplatt.edu