Metamorphoses: The III International Flann O’Brien Conference

Written at a time of profound transformation in post-independence Ireland and war-torn Europe, and displaying an acute awareness of the epochal changes bearing on modern notions of literature and the self, Flann O’Brien’s œuvre offers a sustained engagement with the representation of cultural, political, and personal metamorphosis. This is a body of writing in which the human always bears the potential to be radically remade in the forms of horses, bicycles, and trains; in which genre, language, and literary form are constantly reorganised and refashioned; in which a programme of pseudonymity presents the comic writer as a master of disguise and identity as a matter of constant flux. At Metamorphoses: The III International Flann O’Brien Conference, the organisers propose to build on the current sea change in O’Brien studies to foster a scholarly and critical debate dedicated to the theme of metamorphosis in the writer’s work.

Keynote Speakers

Joseph Brooker (Birkbeck, University of London)

Catherine Flynn (University of California, Berkeley)

Brian Ó Conchubhair (University of Notre Dame)

Guest Writers & Performers

Kevin Barry (City of Bohane; winner of the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award)

Gerry Smyth & Co. (Liverpool John Moores University)