Bibliography

Joep (Joseph Theodoor)
Leerssen
s. xx–xxi

34 publications between 1983 and 2021 indexed
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Works authored

Leerssen, Joep, A commodious vicus of recirculation: Irish anthologies and literary history, Working Papers European Studies Amsterdam, 10, Online: European Studies, University of Amsterdam, 2010–. URL: <http://dare.uva.nl/record/1/355016>.
Leerssen, Joep, National thought in Europe: a cultural history, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006.
Leerssen, Joep, Remembrance and imagination: patterns in the historical and literary representation of Ireland in the nineteenth century, Critical Conditions, 4, Cork: Cork University Press, 1996.
Leerssen, Joep, The contention of the bards (Iomarbhágh na bhFileadh) and its place in Irish political and literary history, Irish Texts Society, Subsidiary Series, 2, London: Irish Texts Society, 1994.
Leerssen, Joep, Mere Irish and Fíor-Ghael: studies in the idea of Irish nationality, its development and literary expression prior to the nineteenth century, Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1986.

Websites

Leerssen, Joep [ed.], Encyclopedia of romantic nationalism in Europe (ERNiE), Online: Study Platform on Interlocking Nationalisms, 2015–present. URL: <http://www.romanticnationalism.net>.

Works edited

Leerssen, Joep (ed.), Parnell and his times, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Beller, Manfred, and Joep Leerssen (eds), Imagology: the cultural construction and literary representation of national characters. A critical survey, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007.

Contributions to journals

Leerssen, Joep, “Cuchulain in the General Post Office: Gaelic revival, Irish rising [Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture]”, Journal of the British Academy 4 (2016): 137–168.  
abstract:
This article looks at the importance of the Gaelic language for the development of Irish nationalism in the decades leading up to, and following the Easter Rising of 1916. This importance was mainly symbolical: the Irish language was used mainly by revivalist activists, in a restricted number of functional registers, and largely as an enabling platform of other consciousness-raising activities. It is suggested, however, that such a symbolical instrumentalisation is by no means inconsequential and should be analysed as an important feature of cultural nationalism, not only in Irish history.
abstract:
This article looks at the importance of the Gaelic language for the development of Irish nationalism in the decades leading up to, and following the Easter Rising of 1916. This importance was mainly symbolical: the Irish language was used mainly by revivalist activists, in a restricted number of functional registers, and largely as an enabling platform of other consciousness-raising activities. It is suggested, however, that such a symbolical instrumentalisation is by no means inconsequential and should be analysed as an important feature of cultural nationalism, not only in Irish history.
Leerssen, Joep, “Gods, heroes, and mythologists: Romantic scholars and the pagan roots of Europe’s nations”, History of Humanities 1:1 (2016): 71–100.  
abstract:
This article traces the scholarly interest in Europe’s non-Classical mythologies, from the rise of Edda studies in late eighteenth-century Denmark to the appropriation of Celtic origin myths in Spanish Galicia, and the flourish of overlapping Baltic mythologies between Tallinn and Vilnius, in the decades before 1900. Mythological studies attracted many important scholars (most notably Jacob Grimm, who published his benchmark Deutsche Mythologie in 1835), reached large readerships and inspired many artists, writers and composers. The progress and spread of this field of knowledge production is, however, extremely difficult to trace because it remained a cultural pursuit and never quite became a scholarly discipline. Its methods were heterogeneous and contradictory, combining the comparatist historicism of the New Philology with a tendency to leap from documentation to fanciful interpretation. The failure of the mythological pursuit to achieve academic consolidation stands in intriguing contrast to its popularity and its successful activation of a multinational repertoire of mythical figures and themes—sometimes reliably documented, often speculative, and always a welcome fuel for nationalist consciousness raising.
abstract:
This article traces the scholarly interest in Europe’s non-Classical mythologies, from the rise of Edda studies in late eighteenth-century Denmark to the appropriation of Celtic origin myths in Spanish Galicia, and the flourish of overlapping Baltic mythologies between Tallinn and Vilnius, in the decades before 1900. Mythological studies attracted many important scholars (most notably Jacob Grimm, who published his benchmark Deutsche Mythologie in 1835), reached large readerships and inspired many artists, writers and composers. The progress and spread of this field of knowledge production is, however, extremely difficult to trace because it remained a cultural pursuit and never quite became a scholarly discipline. Its methods were heterogeneous and contradictory, combining the comparatist historicism of the New Philology with a tendency to leap from documentation to fanciful interpretation. The failure of the mythological pursuit to achieve academic consolidation stands in intriguing contrast to its popularity and its successful activation of a multinational repertoire of mythical figures and themes—sometimes reliably documented, often speculative, and always a welcome fuel for nationalist consciousness raising.
Leerssen, Joep, “Lebowski’s rug and the book in nineteenth-century Ireland [Review of: Murphy, James H. (ed.), The Oxford history of the Irish book, vol. 4: The Irish book in English, 1800–1890, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.]”, Irish Historical Studies 38 (2012): 332–336.
Leerssen, Joep, and Guy Beiner, “Why Irish history starved. A virtual historiography”, Field Day Review 3 (2007): 67–81.
Leerssen, Joep, “The big chill [Review of: Kelleher, Margaret, and Philip OʼLeary (eds), The Cambridge history of Irish literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.]”, Field Day Review 3 (2007): 259–265.
Leerssen, Joep, “Writing literary history: raising interesting questions [Review of: Kelleher, Margaret, and Philip OʼLeary (eds), The Cambridge history of Irish literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.]”, Irish Review 36–37 (2007): 140–145.
Leerssen, Joep, “From whiskey to famine: food and intercultural encounters in Irish history”, Yearbook of European Studies 22:1 (2006): 49–61.
Leerssen, Joep, “Archbishop Ussher and Gaelic culture”, Studia Hibernica 22–23 (1982–1983): 50–58.

Contributions to edited collections or authored works

Leerssen, Joep, “Introduction: charisma and aftermath”, in: Joep Leerssen (ed.), Parnell and his times, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 1–17.
Leerssen, Joep, “Digesting the past: anthologies and bicultural memory in Ireland”, in: Joep Leerssen (ed.), Parnell and his times, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 123–147.
Leerssen, Joep, “Cultural mobility and political mobilization: transnational dynamics, national action”, in: Xosé M. Núñez Seixas (ed.), The First World War and the nationality question in Europe: global impact and local dynamics, Leiden: Brill, 2020. 17–36.
Leerssen, Joep, “Literacy, usage and national prestige: the changing fortunes of Gaelic in Ireland”, in: Willem Frijhoff, Marie-Christine Kok-Escalle, and Karène Sanchez-Summerer (eds), Multilingualism, nationhood, and cultural identity: northern Europe, 16th-19th centuries, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016. 169–182.
Leerssen, Joep, “‘Why sleeps O’Conor’? Charles O’Conor and the Irish nationalization of native historical consciousness”, in: Luke Gibbons, and Kieran OʼConor (eds), Charles O'Conor of Ballinagare: life and works, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2015. 244–254.
Leerssen, Joep, “Convulsion recalled: aftermath and cultural memory (post-1798 Ireland)”, in: Marek Tamm (ed.), Afterlife of events: perspectives on mnemohistory, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 134–153.
Leerssen, Joep, “Public opinion, common knowledge”, in: John Cunningham, and Niall Ó Ciosáin (eds), Culture and society in Ireland since 1750: essays in honour of Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2015. 23–32.
Leerssen, Joep, “Tribal ancestors and moral role patterns”, in: Joanne Parker (ed.), The harp and the constitution: myths of Celtic and Gothic origin, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2015. 13–25.
Leerssen, Joep, “Memory transfer”, in: Oona Frawley (ed.), Memory Ireland, vol. 2: Diaspora and memory practices, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2012. 137–148.
Leerssen, Joep, “The bard’s garb: Ossian’s dress sense”, in: G. Bär, and H. Gaskill (eds), Ossian and national epic, 6, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2012. 277–289.
Leerssen, Joep, “Owenson, Sidney (Lady Morgan)”, in: James McGuire, and James Quinn [eds.], Dictionary of Irish biography: from the earliest times to 2002, 9 vols, Dublin and Cambridge: Royal Irish Academy and Cambridge University Press, 2009. Vol. 7: 1024–1026.
Leerssen, Joep, “Celts”, in: Manfred Beller, and Joep Leerssen (eds), Imagology: the cultural construction and literary representation of national characters. A critical survey, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007. 122–123.
Leerssen, Joep, “Irish”, in: Manfred Beller, and Joep Leerssen (eds), Imagology: the cultural construction and literary representation of national characters. A critical survey, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007. 191–194.
Leerssen, Joep, “Last bard or first virtuoso? Carolan, conviviality and the need for an audience”, in: Liam P. Ó Murchú (ed.), Amhráin Chearbhalláin: The poems of Carolan: reassessments, 18, London: Irish Texts Society, 2007. 30–42.
Leerssen, Joep, “Petrie: polymath and innovator”, in: Peter Murray (ed.), George Petrie (1790-1866): the rediscovery of Ireland's past, Cork, Kinsale: Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Gandon, 2004. 7–11.
Leerssen, Joep, “Kelten, keltologen en Keltenbeeld”, in: Rijcklof Hofman, Bernadette Smelik, and Karel Jongeling (eds), Kelten van Spanje tot Ierland, Utrecht: Stichting Uitgeverij de Keltische Draak, 1996. 1–18.
Leerssen, Joep, “Faoi thuairim na deorantachta”, in: Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha (ed.), Nua-léamha: gnéithe de chultúr, stair agus polaitíocht na hÉireann, c.1600–c.1900, Dublin: An Clóchomhar, 1996. 41–56.