To mark the 10th anniversary of
the passing of John McGahern, The James Hardiman Library in association with
the MA in Writing and the Moore Institute at NUI Galway are delighted to
present a public lecture by the renowned John McGahern scholar, Denis Sampson. The
lecture, 'John McGahern's New Voice: The Writing of Amongst Women' will take place on Wednesday, 27 April at 7pm in the Hardiman Research
Building, NUI Galway.
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| Denis Sampson |
Sampson produced the first
full-length study of McGahern’s works, Outstaring
Nature’s Eye, in 1993, and his enduring critical attention to the writer
culminated in his book Young John
McGahern: Becoming a Novelist, published by Oxford University Press in
2012. Sampson has lectured and published widely on modern Irish writing, and he
has also published a memoir, A Migrant
Heart (2014). His new book from Oxford, The
Found Voice: Writers' Beginnings, will be out next month.
The 30th of March this
year was the 10th anniversary of the death of the celebrated Irish
writer, John McGahern. McGahern’s work, from the 1960s up to his passing in
2006, has enthralled readers with his artistry and has engaged a succession of
generations with his range of themes emanating from modern Irish history,
culture and society. His reputation is as strong abroad as at home, and he is
widely regarded as a master of the novel and short-story forms.
The rich John McGahern Archive at
the Hardiman Library, NUI Galway preserves the documentary evidence of 'the
writer at work'. In his lecture, Denis Sampson mines the Archive to trace the drafting
and evolution of McGahern's 1990 novel, Amongst
Women, and he reveals the ‘reinvention’ of McGahern as a writer through his
writing of this major novel. In McGahern's papers, the characteristic personal
traces of the writer can be found in voluminous manuscript copybooks and loose
pages. The ideas that inform each work become clearer through these papers, and
his artistic process is made clear in the exhaustive level of revision and
redrafting he brought to his emergent novels and stories.
Looking forward to Sampson’s
lecture, Dr John Kenny, John McGahern Lecturer in Creative Writing and Director
of the MA in Writing, NUI Galway observed: ‘The nature of John McGahern’s
Archive here at NUI Galway ideally suits it to different kinds of exploratory
readers. Scholars of McGahern, or of contemporary Irish fiction and writing,
naturally find it a highly valuable resource, but the papers also hold great promise
for any student or devotee of writing intent on emulating the best models for
creative practice and artistic dedication’.
John Cox, University Librarian, NUI
Galway comments: "We treasure the John McGahern archive as an enabler of
new research and are greatly looking forward to Denis Sampson's lecture as a
very appropriate way of marking the tenth anniversary of John's passing."
In his lecture, Sampson will discuss
unpublished drafts of Amongst Women from
within the McGahern Archive and will reveal the links between the novel and some
of the earlier McGahern short stories in his collections Getting Through and High
Ground.
The lecture will be accompanied by an
exhibition of select material from the McGahern Archive and is free of charge
and open to all.
Venue: Moore Institute Seminar Room (G010), Hardiman Research
Building, NUI Galway
Date: Wednesday, 27 April 2016
Time: 7pm
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| Material from the John McGahern Archive at the Hardiman Library |
