Over the last twenty years, Ireland has undergone significant transformation and, as a consequence, notions of Irish identity and nationality have been in constant flux. For this reason, it is a timely moment to consider visual representations, both past and present, of Irish cultural life, and contribute to conversations about questions such as: What kind of iconic currencies does Ireland have? How should we see them? Are there specific ideological frameworks operating when we imagine Ireland? Can we imagine Irishness differently?

Viewpoints explores the ways in which visual texts engage with questions of Irish culture, and the manner in which those texts are received, circulated, and consumed. By way of recourse to a range of theoretical positions that include feminism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, philosophy, and queer theory, the collection presents multiple and variegated perspectives on Irish texts, culture, society, and life. With essays on theories of visualisation and early Irish photography, adaptation and memory in the diasporic image, identities in Irish photographic art, the advertising of therapeutic 'wellness' sites, as well as essays which read and focus Irish film and television 'differently', this book brings new critical readings to how we 'see' Irish culture.

Contents

Introduction - Claire Bracken and Emma Radley
Discourse
Terra Infirma: The Territory of the Visible and the Writing of Ireland's Visual Culture - Justin Carville
World-making in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's The Woman Who Married Clark Gable - Cheryl Herr
The Phenomenological Narrative Shift between Lenny Abrahamson's Adam and Paul and Garage -Barry Monahan
Fascinating States - Matthew Brown
Finding a Voice: Irish-Language Film in the Twenty-First Century - Heather Macdougall

Form
Memory to Film: Reviving the Irish Diaspora in Stephen Frears' Liam - Emmie McFadden
Violent Transpositions: The Disturbing 'Appearance' of the Irish Horror Film - Emma Radley
Film into Novel: Kate O'Brien's Modernist Use of Film Techniques - Aintzane Legarreta Mentxaka
The Feng Shui of Lough Derg: Therapeutic Landscapes and the Marketing of Spirituality in Contemporary Ireland - Anne Mulhall

Identity
'Indebted for their existence to the inessential': On Three Irish Artists - Colin Graham
Post-Feminism and the Celtic Tiger: Deirdre O'Kane's Television Roles - Claire Bracken
New Identities in the Irish Horror Film: Isolation and Boy Eats Girl - Zélie Asava
Becoming-Woman, Becoming-Mad: Transformations in the Interstice in the Cinema of Neil Jordan - Jenny O'Connor
Mourning Sex: The Aesthetics of Queer Relationality in Contemporary Film - Fintan Walsh