Studying Irish Culture in Argentinean EFL Teacher Education Programs Marcela B.

Calvete y Mara Cristina Sarasa Universidad Nacional del Mar del Plata, Argentina Facultad de Humanidades, Departamento de Lenguas Modernas. Introduction This paper examines the interaction between language, content, and different literacies in the study of Irish culture in a sophomore language course called Overall Communication, which is taught in the EFL Teacher Education Program at Mar del Plata State University, Argentina. This subject aims at using the FL to explore some of the multiple identities existing in the English-speaking world. This blending is achieved by working interdisciplinarily with a variety of cultural products representing plural discourses and authorial voices. To this end, language, culture, and literature are explored and redefined in the course of the three units Overall Communication introduces. Literature stands as the re-presentation of a society, since its productions give voice to cultures; Overall Communication also uses films to integrate language, culture, and content (Williamson and Vincent 1999). Films bring the world of the target cultures into the classroom since they present not only language but also cultural knowledge essential to function in foreign language societies. Thus, Overall Communication aims at developing media literacy, which can be defined as the ability to comprehend information that is contained and conveyed through a variety of nonprint media. This involves complex intellectual tasks that go beyond the simple manipulation of the language being used (Krueger 1998: 17). Students are encouraged to develop critical watching strategies through activities which analyze different aspects of the target culture, exploring how different issues may be similar to, or different from, their counterpart in their native- language cultures. The first unit, called "A World of Multiple Identities," focuses on a variety of sociopolitical and cultural issues affecting some current realities of different Englishspeaking peoples. The second unit, named A Postcolonial World, aims at exposing students to cultural productions of the Empire that writes back (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin 1989). The focus of this paper is on the last unit, which is called A World of Multiple Cultures, and deals with Irish cultural re-presentations used, in this case, to suggest the cultural plurality of the British Isles. The materials introduced since the course started being taught in the year 2000 have included short stories such as, for

example, A Letter to Rome (Moore 1987), Death in Jerusalem (Trevor 1987), Dragons (Barnes 1996), and The Outfielder, the Indian Giver (McKinney 2000); and a selection of narratives and essays by Glenn Patterson (2006). Films shown have featured In the Name of the Father (Universal Pictures 1993), Michael Collins (Warner 1996), and Gangs of New York (Miramax 2002). Students have also explored a variety of print and media background materials.

Throughlines for Teaching about Irish Culture In the Introduction to his book Inventing Ireland, Kiberd (1996: 1) poses the question who invented Ireland? providing three answers to his query. This section will examine how the aforementioned media and print texts relate to each of the authors responses. The first natural answer, according to Kiberd, would be that the Irish invented themselves without any outside intervention. George Moores work A Letter to Rome is set in the Irish countryside around the time of the Famine. Father MacTurnan is concerned about the fact that Ireland will soon become a Protestant country if migration does not cease. In order to save Irish Catholicism and to form an Irish Catholicism suited to the ideas and needs of the Irish people (91), he decides to write a letter to the Pope asking him to rescind the decree of celibacy for the clergy. In this way, the birthrate would exceed the emigration rate and religion will become effectively national and parochialin the sense of truly stemming from the Catholic parishes. William Trevors story Death in Jerusalem also exhibits these features that seem to belong to Irelands essential idiosyncrasy, such as Catholicismsince both characters share a feature that has commonly represented Irelandand localism. There are two main Catholic actors: Paula Catholic priest who has emigrated to the USdecides to take his brother Franciswho runs his own Dublin-based business and looks after their old motherto the Holy Land (Sarasa, Calvete, and Gmez 2001b). 1 Julian Barnes Dragons is set in late seventeenth century France, where Louis XIV hired Catholic Irish soldierswho had been allowed to leave Ireland after the Battle of the Boyneas les dragons trangers du roi to persecute the HuguenotsFrench Calvinistsand to force these heretics to abjure their religion after the revocation of the

The authors wish to acknowledge J. A. Gmezs invaluable contribution to the analysis of the literary texts.

Edict of Nantes. The dragons immovable Catholic identity has been forged in eternal hatred of the Protestant English, singly embodied by Oliver Cromwell. Blnaid McKinneys story The Outfielder, the Indian-Giver concerns the Irishman Fergalresearch assistant to the Politics professor at Trinity Collegeand the Englishman Martinsportswriter for the Telegraph. Cricket commentator mainly (580). Both men meet in Dublin and embark together on a car trip through the US from Chicago to New Orleans. Martin has been sent to cover the beginning of the baseball season, although he knows absolutely nothing about the game. Fergal is going to Mississippi to visit the lands of the Choctaws, a Native American tribe who in the midst of their own misery in 1847 collected $710 to help the starving Irish. The quest for absolute essences is translated to the American continent, where Fergal is fascinated by the first true Americansi.e. Native Americans. He offers no comments about Ireland but it occurred to Fergal that if a thing belonged to the man who worked on it, who built it, the London belonged to the Irish (583). For his own part, Martins behavior mocks the stereotypes of Englishness by, for example, sounding like Prince Charles stoned (593). Kiberds first answer that the Irish have invented themselves from pre- English Gaelic sources and have had to re- invent themselves in their struggle for independence are suggested by the name Sinn Fein (We Ourselves), the party founded by Arthur Griffith in the early 20th century. In this context, Neil Jordans film Michael Collins (Warner Brothers 1996), traces the public career of the homonymous Irish revolutionary leader from his i mprisonment after the 1916 Easter Rising, through his organization of the Irish armed revolutionary movementthe future IRA, his participation in the peace negotiations that led to the creation of the Irish Free State and the partition of the island, concluding with his assassination in Co. Corkhis birthplacein 1922, at the beginning of the Civil War. Collins struggle shows that the Irish created a wholly new way of fighting for their cause. Statements in the film such as we wont play by their [English] rules Well invent our own; our only weapon is our refusal to bow to any order but our own, any institution but our own; as well as youll [the Twelve Apostles] engage the enemy on nobodys terms but your own; and well defeat the British Empire by ignoring it emphasize these Irishmens belief in their own native methods to defeat the British Empire (Jordan 1996). Jim Sheridans production In the Name of the Father (Universal Pictures 1993) is based on the true story of Gerry Conlon and three other Northern Irish peopleknown as 3

The Guilford Fourwho, together with Gerrys father Giuseppe, were mistakenly identified as IRA members by the British police, and given long sentences for crimes they did not commit. Once in their English prison, the Conlons meet the man who confesses to actually having planted the bomb in the Guilford pub. This character is politically uncompromising and determined, inspiring Gerry Conlons determination in his personal struggle for justice. Finally, Martin Scorseses Gangs of New York (Miramax 2002), an urban epic about 19th century gang warfare in pre- modern New York, exhibits polarities between Catholic Irish and Protestant American gangs in the period spanning from the year 1846 to the draft riots of 1863. Xenophobic Americansironically calling themselves Nativistsclash with Irish immigrants escaping from the worst phase of the potato Famine. Dominated at home and unable to overcome the polarities between rich Protestant landlords and poor Catholic peasants, Irish immigrants face additional socioreligious opposition in the US. Kiberds second answer states that the English invented Ireland by creating negative polarities. A Letter to Rome addresses the apparently irreconcilable dualities between Catholicism and Protestantism. This story and Death in Jerusalem also present a binary clash between localism/parochialism and cosmopolitanism/universalism. Dragons manipulates enmities by reversing them: the persecuted/dominated Catholic Irish in Ireland become persecutors/dominant when they arrive in France. The Huguenots in Francethe religious equivalent of Protestant victimizers in Ireland become the victims in their own homeland. Likewise, The Outfielder, the IndianGiver complexly interweaves and recreates polarities in its relocation of the EnglishIrish relationship. In this case, Martin the Englishman is pitted against US mainstream culture to the extent that Fergal the Irishman has to defend him in bars when the former verbally abuses his hosts stereotyped customs. This idea that the English helped to bring Ireland into existence by creating opposing essences or polarities is usually summarized by the words us [the dominant] and them [the dominated]. In the Name of the Father features the suffering and bewilderment of non-guilty Catholic Irish trapped by Britains Prevention of Terrorism Act. For Republicans, the Guilford Four can be regarded as the main targets of offenses committed by the British Establishment as part of a broader aggression against the Irish people. In turn, Michael Collins reverses the us-and-them polarity: the Irish become

us and the English them. Its either us or them, Collins warns his firing squad on the eve of Bloody Sunday in Dublin on 21 November 1920. In this second answer, Kiberd nevertheless concludes that [i]f England had never existed, the Irish would have been rather lonely. Each nation badly needed the other, for the purpose of defining itself (2). In this vein, by upsetting long-established polarities and de/re-territorializing conflicts, Dragons unites both victims and victimizers in their hatred of Oliver Cromwell, whose legacy had the Irish evicted from their homes, forcing them to flee to another land and hire themselves to a foreign king to perform acts of violence in his royal name. Said a dragon to one of his victimsa young Huguenot girl: You curse his [Cromwells] name. I curse his name too. We both curse his name (146). In its turn, The Outfielder, the Indian-Giver also upturns oppositions. Fergalalthough deeply upset after having inflicted pain on his girlfriend by forcing her to have an abortion in Dublinis emotionally sounder than Martin and eventually undertakes to look after the latter, until the Englishman faces up to his personal and work-related conflicts. In this way, Kiberds negative polarity is inverted with a strong Irishman protecting a weak Englishman. Glenn Pattersons work strives to overcome essentialisms by negotiating in-between spaces across the North (Northern Ireland) and South (Ireland) frontier in an attempt to redraw the boundaries of the possible (42). Striving to depoliticize territories and sources, the author redefines the idea of origins and home by stating that [m]aybe its time we stopped thinking about roots and thought about the routes by which we have been arrived at (171). Michael Collins also conquers polarities when Collins is made to acknowledgeto his own detriment in the eyes of many of his comradesthat the Irish do need the English for establishing the ir identity, even after achieving their freedom. Filmmaker and scriptwriter Jordan has Collins say after the signing of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty: we have to learn to build on what we have. In this way, in the film, Collins acknowledges the continuity of his countrys relationship with the English and also the fact that the English cannot be ignored in the creation of an Irish future. Kiberds last answer asserts that exile is a very powerful force in the creation of national and cultural identities. In A Letter to Rome, emigration is seen as a threat to the establishment of identity. Trevors story Death in Jerusalem offers three settings: America (where father Paul has emigrated to), Ireland (where his familyincluding his mother and his brother Francishave always lived), and Israel (where Paul takes 5

Francis). In Jerusalem, the story reaches its climax because this trip to the Holy Land, and their mothers concomitant death in Ireland, reveal the affective, moral, and even religious breach between the brotherssomething that is suggested by their names: i.e. the Apostle to the Gentiles Paulthe Pharisee who persecuted the first Christians until he converted to Christianity and established it as a separate religionand the mystic Francis of Assisithe perfect imitator of Christs life on earth (Sarasa, Calvete, and Gmez 2001a and b). In the case of Dragons, exile translates the Catholic-Protestant conflict to another timethe late 17th centuryand placeFrancein order to revisit it and rewrite its history. The Outfielder, the Indian-Giver deals with territorial and emotional exile in historythe Choctaws Trail of Tears and the massive exodus caused by the Famine, in the private realm of feelingsFergals and Martins separation from their partners, and in the spatial sensethe trip through America where both mens identities are redefined. The sense of the unhomely/uncanny [unheimlich ] (Bhabha 1994) pervades the whole text as the two men are unhoused, estranged from home and relocated in the vast unfamiliar and at times frightening American spaces. Eventually, their displacement allows them to develop new selves. In Pattersons work, exile can take the form of displacement from narrow localism to a wider, richer European identity. The broader perspective of European history and culture allows for the recognition of the fact that nations are mostly narrations (Bhabha 1994). Expatriation for Patterson has been a personal experience in the shape of selfimposed banishment across the water (i.e. to England) to voluntarily adopt an unhomely condition in the hope of transcending Orange/Green dichotomies. This has involved his self-willed renunciation of religious and political allegiances in order to fully embrace opposed ones. The problematic of exile is briefly addressed in Michael Collins, when Mick recites Old Skibbereen, a ballad which mourns the long Irish history of eviction and emigration. In its verses, a father tells his son how they came to America (Coogan 1992). Likewise, In the Name of the Father and Gangs of New York both deal with the issue of expatriation. In Sheridans picture, Gerry Conlon and his friends leave Belfast in search of a life free from Catholic-Protestant dichotomies in Northern Ireland, only to be caught in English-Irish polarities in England, where conflict takes on a different dimension. On the other hand, Scorseses film portrays the period following the Famine during which huge numbers of Irish immigrants arrived in New York City only to face 6

extremely poor living conditions in a hostile environment. The difficulties encountered, and the distance from their country of origin, contribute to the re-definition of their nationality. As Kramsch (2000) states, immigrants sense of self in a new country is linked to their national citizenship and/or religion of origin, because this is the identity that is usually imposed on them by their hosts, who tend to regard them, for example, as either Catholic or Protestant Irish.

Discussion Kiberds answers concerning the Irish inventing themselves or being created by polarities point to an essential identity. Essentialism involves invariable and fixed properties that are defined in opposition to difference ( Niranjana 1992). While the former is static the latter is complex. In othe r words, essentialism involves reducing a people to a central, simplified idea. This diminishment is not only carried out by dominant groups, but also by formerly dominated, nationalist sectors, who may define themselves as the authentic essence of their land with a homogenous, unbroken tradition of pre-colonial sources. In this sense, they use the same categories of though of the old rulers. Most of the texts and films studied here, with the probable exception of Pattersons work, offer insights into essential/essentialized/essentializing visions of Ireland, England, and the world beyond the British Isles. Kiberds answer that the Irish and the English need each other for self-definition points to hybrid identities. Bhabhas use of the term hybridity may suggest a strategy introduced by the subaltern in reckoning with a dominant order. In this sense, hybridity is not relativism or a third term but a negative transparencya black-on-white picture that reverts the process of domination and enables a form of subversion. Thus, hybridity as an encounter of differences or separationsas for example in consciousness or in language (Bakhtin 1981: 358)is meant to foreclose the forces of purity encompassed within the aforementioned essentialist theories. In this vein, Barness, Pattersons, McKinneys, and Jordans hybrid works question the images and presences of authority. Finally, (un)willing exile with its attendant unhomeliness is the nursery of national identity because immigrants sense of self naturally changes in a new land under the scrutiny of others. In many cases, the distant home becomes an imagined community in the positive and creative sense of the term (Anderson 1993). In Bhabhas words (1994: 172), exilic movements refer to the transnational dimension of cultural transformation characterized by migration, diaspora, displacement, relocation. The 7

issue of the Irish Diaspora is powerful enough to be represented in all of the productions analyzed here. This analysis has endeavored to substantiate the authors beliefs that cultural contents and linguistic manifestations can complement each other in the teaching of the English language to its prospective instructors. The notions that language and culture are inextricably bound, that the study of TL cultures significantly impacts on learners linguistic competence, and that teacher educators disciplinary knowledge base should be dialectically integrated have long constituted the basis for the new agenda in EFL Teacher Education Programs (Shanahan 1997).

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