Life
1955- [Joseph Theodoor Leerssen; fam. & later titles, Joep]; studied
of Anglo-Irish Literature as post-grad. at St Michael’s College,
Halifax, Canada; Professor of European Literature, Amsterdam; author of
Mere Irish or Fíor Ghael (1986, rep 1996) and Remembrance
and Imagination (1996).
Works
Monographs, Komparatistik in Grossbritannien 1800-1950 [Aachener
Beiträge zur Komparatistik, 7] (Bonn: Bouvier 1984), 168pp.; Mere Irish
& Fíor-Ghael: Studies in The Idea of Irish Nationality, its
Development and Literary Expression prior to the Nineteenth Century [Utrecht
Publications in General and Comparative Literature, Vol 22] (John Benjamins
Pub. Co., Amsterdam / Philadelphia, 1986), and Do. [rep. edn.;
Critical Conditions; Field Day Monographs, No. 4] (Cork UP 1996) [1 85918
112 0]; Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and
Literary Representations of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century (Cork
UP 1996) [Field Day ser.] [1 85918 111 2]; Nationaal denken in Europa:
een cultuurhistorische schets (Amsterdam UP 1999).
Pamphlets, ed. and intro., The Necessity for de-anglicising Ireland by Douglas Hyde (Leiden: Academic Press Leiden 1994), xvi, 39pp.; Joep Leerssen, The Contention of the Bards (Iomarbhágh na bhfileadh) and and Its Place in Irish Political and Literary History [Irish Texts Society, Subsidiary Ser., 2] (London: ITS 1994), 72pp.; Hidden Ireland, Public Sphere (Arlen House [2004]), 48pp.
Edited collections, ed., with Raymond Corbey, Alterity, Identity, Image: Selves and Others in Society and Scholarship [Amsterdam studies on Cultural Identity, 1] (Amsterdam: Rodopi 1991), xviii, 252pp.; ed., with A.H. van der Weel and Bart Westerweel, The Literature of Politics, the Politics of Literature [Leiden IASAIL conference], Vol.1: "Forging in the smithy - National Identity and Representation in Anglo-Irish Literary History" [Costerus, n.s. 98] Amsterdam: Rodopi 1995), 249pp.
European Studies: ed., with A. Boxhoorn & M. Spiering, Britain in Europe [Yearbook of European Studies, 1] (Amsterdam: Rodopi 1988), xii, 210pp.; ed., with M. Spiering, National Identity: Symbol and Representation [Yearbook of European Studies, 4] (Amsterdam: Rodopi 1991), viii, 247pp.; ed., with M. van Montfrans, Borders and Territories [Yearbook of European Studies, 6] (Amsterdam: Rodopi [1993]), xii, 256pp.
Articles (sel.), ‘Antiquarian Research: Patriotism to Nationalism’, in Cyril J. Byrne and Margaret Harry, eds., Talamh an Eisc: Canadian and Irish Essays [Irish Studies St. Mary’s Coll.] (Halifax Can.: Nimbus Publ. Co. 1986), pp.71-83; ‘Táin and Táin: The Mythical Past and the Anglo-Irish’, in Joris Duytschaever and Geert Lernout, eds., History and Violence in Anglo-Irish Literature [Conference of 9 April 1986]; Costerus Ser. Vol. 71 (Amsterdam: Rodopi 1988), pp.pp.19-45.
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Criticism
Alan Harrison, review of Mere Irish & Fíor-Ghael, in
Eigse, Vol. XXII (NUI 1987), pp.155-[59].
Andrew Hadfield, ‘Rethinking Early-Modern Colonialism: The
Anomalous State of Ireland’, in Irish Studies Review, April
1999), p.13.
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Notes
Imaginaire: Leerssen ascribes his ‘imagological’ approach
- tracing dichronic rather than synchronic aspects of national identity
(that is, ‘traditions and historical recognitions and appopriations
rather than appurtenances and current attitudes) - to the school of Hugo
Dyserinck, viz., Komparatistiche Imagologie jenseits von Werkimmanenz
and Wektranszendenz, Synthesis 9 (1892), pp.27-40, and other authors
writing in the same journal. This throws up the concept of the ‘imaginaire
in literature’. (‘Táin after Táin: The Mythical
Past and the Anglo-Irish’, in Joris Duytschaever & Geert Lernout,
eds., History and Violence in Anglo-Irish Literature [Conference
of 9 April 1986; Costerus Ser. Vol. 71], Amsterdam: Rodopi 1988, pp.19-45.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)