Maebh Long is an Irish academic with expertise on Irish literature - particularly the modernist novelist and playwright Flann O'Brien [1] - Pacific literature [2] and the medical humanities. [3] She is currently the Eamon Cleary Chair of Irish Studies [4] at the University of Otago in New Zealand, having been Senior Lecturer (above the bar) in the English Programme at The University of Waikato in New Zealand, [5] and Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of School at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji. [6]
She obtained her BA in English and German (2001) and MA (with distinction) in English (2002) at University College Cork in Ireland and her PhD (2011) on "Derrida and a Theory of Irony: Parabasis and Parataxis" at the University of Durham in England.
Her research and teaching focus on modernist and contemporary literature from Ireland, Britain, and Oceania. She has also published in the areas of Literary Theory, the History of Medicine, and Continental Philosophy. She has been influenced by Jacques Derrida and by Pacific Island literature. [7]
Long has also written about the effect of climate change on sea level rise, particularly as it affects South Pacific island nations. [8] In 2020 Long was granted funding by the Marsden Fund of New Zealand's Royal Society Te Apārangi to examine the ways modernist writers were influenced by metaphors of immunity. [9] This research has strong connections to the COVID-19 pandemic. [10] [11]
Long is an expert on the Irish novelist and playwright Flann O'Brien and has published two award winning books on him. [5] [12] [13] She has significantly impacted wider recognition of O'Brien's work. Joseph Booker called The Collected Letters of Flann O'Brien, "a major event in the documentation of modern Ireland's history. The most significant publication by Brian O'Nolan since the belated arrival in print of The Third Policeman." [14] The Irish Studies Review said, "Reading Maebh Long's recent book, Assembling Flann O'Brien, one cannot help thinking that the poor fellow is finally getting the attention he deserves." [15] Assembling Flann O'Brien won the 2015 International Flann O'Brien Society's "Best book length study on a Brian O'Nolan theme" [16] In 2019 The Collected Letters of Flann O'Brien won the corresponding 2019 award. [17] She is one of the co-editors of the Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies.
Irish literature is literature written in the Irish, Latin, English and Scots languages on the island of Ireland. The earliest recorded Irish writing dates from back in the 7th century and was produced by monks writing in both Latin and Early Irish, including religious texts, poetry and mythological tales. There is a large surviving body of Irish mythological writing, including tales such as The Táin and Mad King Sweeny.
Brian O'Nolan, his pen name being Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth-century Irish literature. Born in Strabane, County Tyrone, he is regarded as a key figure in modernist and postmodern literature. His English language novels, such as At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman, were written under the O'Brien pen name. His many satirical columns in The Irish Times and an Irish-language novel, An Béal Bocht, were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen.
At Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction.
Articles about people, places, things, and concepts related to or originating from Fiji, include:
The Third Policeman is a novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written in 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained unpublished at the time of his death in 1966. It was published by MacGibbon & Kee in 1967.
The University of Fiji is a university based in Saweni, Lautoka, Fiji. It was established in December 2004 under academic leadership of the Fiji Institute of Applied Studies and financial sponsorship of the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji, a Hindu religious organization dedicated to education." On 14 February 2016, the Native Lands Trust Board (NLTB) signed a 99-year lease with the university for the 5-hectare property, for which the university paid F$100,000. The university agreed in return to provide two scholarships annually for the children of landowners.
Anthony Gerard Richard Cronin was an Irish poet, arts activist, biographer, commentator, critic, editor and barrister.
Sudesh Mishra is a contemporary Fijian-Australian poet and academic.
Oceanianliterature developed in a unique geographical environment that allowed the development of a unique literature to thrive. Oceanian literature was heavily influenced by religion, ritual and colonization. This can be seen by the large amount of religious symbolism and political activism featured in it.
Daniel Anthony Binchy (1899–1989) was a scholar of Irish linguistics and early Irish law.
Epeli Hauʻofa was a Tongan and Fijian writer and anthropologist born of Tongan missionary parents in the Territory of Papua. He lived in Fiji and taught at the University of the South Pacific (USP). He was the founder of the Oceania Centre for Arts at the USP.
Pacific studies is the study of the Pacific region (Oceania) across academic disciplines such as anthropology, archeology, art, economics, geography, history, linguistics, literature, music, politics, or sociology.
Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art was a magazine published in Dublin, Ireland, from December 1949 to July 1951. It was founded and edited by John Ryan.
John Ryan (1925–1992) was an Irish artist, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, and publican.
Ist das Ihr Fahrrad Mr O’Brien? is a German biographical radio play about life, works and legacy of Irish modernist writer Brian O'Nolan.
Subramani is a Fijian author, essayist, and literary critic. According to The Literary Encyclopedia, he is "one of Fiji's leading prose fiction writers, essayists, and critics". His essays have dealt with multiculturalism, education, and cinema. Subramani writes fiction and non-fiction in English and Fiji Hindi, and has combined writing with university administration. He has served in all three universities in Fiji and has been a Dean, Pro Vice Chancellor and Acting Vice Chancellor. He has established himself as a novelist, short story writer, essayist and a literary critic. He has written on education, language, the university, cinema and civil society. In his fiction, as a bilingual writer, and working from the intersection of two languages, he been able to depict, in the words of the Samoan novelist, Sia Figiel, the "struggles of Fijian society and present us with a haunting salusalu of melancholy, despair, anguish, madness, terror, loss interlaced with moments of satire and humour that encapsulates the history and experience of men and women and children caught up in the violent shadow of colonialism".
The Global Girmit Institute (GGI) Museum is co-located with the GGI Library at its headquarters in Saweni, Lautoka, Fiji. Girmit is a corruption of the English word, “agreement” from the indenture agreement the British government made with Indian labourers that consisted of specifics such as the length of stay in Fiji. The labourers came to be known as Girmityas.
Salome Tabuatalei is a Fijian athlete who competed at international level in a wide range of athletic events and in canoeing, from 1993 to 2019. She was named Fiji's Sportswoman of the Year in 1996 and 1997.
Niall Sheridan (1912–1998) was an Irish poet, fiction-writer, and broadcaster, remembered primarily for his friendships with better-known Irish writers Brian O'Nolan and Donagh MacDonagh.