The Delaney Lectures: Frank Delaney on Irish Literary Figures
In his series of four forty-minute talks, Frank Delaney examines
three famous Irish writers, James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett,
and finally revisiting a lecture created for the National Archive of the
Library of Congress, ties it all together in an examination of the universal
ways that oral storytelling became the written literature of Joyce, Yeats and
Beckett – and every other literary culture in the world.
Presented by Litchfield County Writers Project at the University of
Connecticut’s Torrington campus this past autumn, the lectures, designed to
educate, inform and entertain both students and the general public, were met
with an enthusiastic reception, reflecting Delaney’s gift, learned at the BBC,
of never underestimating his audience’s intelligence, but always their knowledge.
“These three authors have been driving forces in the life of many
writers, the lives of all Irish writers—and especially in mine,” says Delaney.
“Their cultural significance is universal; but for me they have become almost
personal—they certainly go beyond the mere fact of being Irish, and even of
being a writer. I am delighted to have the chance to illuminate their gifts and
to channel my passion about them to students and the general public alike.”
The Litchfield County Writers Project provides programs that
celebrate the creative work of Litchfield County and support the academic aims
of the University of Connecticut. “I am delighted to be staging these lectures
for the Litchfield County Writers Project. The LCWP is a treasure that I found
in my own backyard,” says Delaney. With its connection between the university
and the talents for professional writing found, at the highest levels, in this
Connecticut county, it forms a basis for both study and appreciation. To find
so well-developed a link between the culture of writing, the scholarship of a
respected university, and the presentation of literature to those who care
about the condition of writing and reading is remarkable.”
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