George Moore

George Moore: Transnational and Cosmopolitan Networks on the Page and Canvas

At Moore Institute, NUI Galway with sessions at Coole Park, Galway.

‘I wrote The Untilled Field, a book written in the beginning out of no desire of self-expression, but in the hope of furnishing the young Irish of the future with models. Yeats said that I had learned the art of presentation in Paris, and in 1900 we believed that the Irish language could be revived.
I wrote “The Wedding Gown”, “Almsgiving”, “The Clerk’s Quest”, and “So On He Goes”, in English rather than in Anglo-Irish, for what help would that pretty idiom, in which we catch the last accents of the original language, be to Taigh Donoghue, my translator?’
George Moore, The Untilled Field (1903), Preface.

The stimulus of Impressionism and Realism, both in art and literature, on George Moore (1852-1933), led him on a quest to infuse English and Irish writing with state-of-the-art literary themes and forms. Moore’s initial works were informed by Realism and Naturalism. His time in Paris deeply influenced his literary style and aspirations, and gave him a self-consciously avant-garde perspective. His participation in diverse social, musical, and cultural spheres prompted him to explore areas that were untraditional and ground-breaking. Thus, Moore’s oeuvre is replete with transnational flavours derived from his experience of literary and artistic circles in cosmopolitan cities. The significant feature of Moore’s cosmopolitan aesthetic is the visual, whether in depictions of the city, landscape, or in portrayal of characters. The focus of this conference will concern the relationship of George Moore and his works to:

• transnational links (works, locations, or people) in the art world and on the canvas that influenced Moore’s perception of Irish literature and the works he offered as models for future writers
• Social/cultural/political movements during the fin de siècle and the following decades of the twentieth century to which Moore and fellow artists responded.
• The cosmopolitan aesthetics behind Moore’s writing and reviews
• Moore’s collaborative works

Topics could include, but are not limited to:

Moore and Visual Culture: Irish Art and Moore; European Art and Moore; Moore and Painting; Moore and Sculpture; Moore’s reviews of Art; Moore and French Impressionism; Moore and Orpen; Moore and Manet; Moore and Monet; Landscapes in Moore’s Writing; Moore and Mary Alment.

Moore’s International connections: Moore and Zola; Moore and Huysmans; Moore and Turgenev; Moore and Dujardin; Moore and Henry Vizetelly; Moore and Lady Cunard; Moore and Paris; Moore and travel; Moore and Jerusalem.
Moore and Irish connections: Moore and Wilde; Moore and Edward Martyn; Moore and W.B Yeats; Moore and John Butler Yeats; Moore and AE; Moore and Lady Gregory; Moore and Elizabeth Bowen; Moore and Gogarty; Moore and Joyce; Moore and Emily Lawless; Moore and Somerville and Ross; Moore and William Kirkpatrick Magee; Moore and Osborn Bergin; George and Maurice Moore; The Untilled Field: Tadhg Ó Donnchadha and Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin.

Moore and Identity Formation: Moore and Regional Art; Moore and Regional Literature; Moore and National Art; Moore and National Literature

Abstracts:
Abstracts (200 words) for papers proposed (20 minutes maximum delivery time) should be accompanied by a short biographical note (100 words), plus full address and institutional affiliation. Please send abstracts to Mark Corcoran:
M.Corcoran9@nuigalway.ie by January 30, 2018.

Since sessions of the conference will be held at Coole Park, and a visit will be made to Moore Hall, we will welcome papers concerning the Moore family and estate.