Who is Godot? That was the big question that I remember from countless literature classes at school and university. The general consensus seemed to be that Beckett meant God and she never turned up.

Now, considering Beckett is Irish, and you pronounce "Godot" French (after all, the play was written in French originally), has nobody ever realised that the sound of "Godot" matches the Irish phrase "go deo", which means "forever"? The first time this occured to me was a good 10 years ago, and at the time nobody, even in Ireland, seemed to have made that connection. I can't honestly believe that I should be the first to suggest this, so please leave a comment if you know of anyone at all who made the go deo - Godot connection.

I think I promised this about two years ago. I don't know exactly, but it's been a while. Now finally, my PhD thesis is available. I shall upload it here (that's a free download) and you can also get it in book format through Lulu (it's not free there, but you'll get a nice book for it, for much less than it cost me to get it printed and bound when I had to submit it, so it's really good value methinks). I can hear those academic sniffer dogs raising their noses for publishing a piece of academic writing, a PhD thesis even, just like that, rather than doing the proper publishing stuff. But to be honest, it's a minor field of interest with potentially not enough people interested in it to make a book commercially viable, and I'm happy to share my research for what it's worth, because that's what research should be about.

For anyone using this for their own research, please do reference it - that's only fair.

Of course, any publishers out there who are interested, feel free to get in touch with your fab deals.

Through other eyes: Representations of Romanies in European Film and the genesis of identity through alterity.   more »

In Edgar Reitz’s film chronicle Heimat, episode 1 entitled “Fernweh”, the alleged Gypsy woman Apollonia, herself at the very periphery of the closely-knit community of the Schabbach village, conveys to the episode’s protagonist Paul Simon “du bis sowieso anners wie die Leut im Dorf”, to which he answers "Ich bin auch nit anners". This statement is the antitheses to Paul's joyful return to his home village at the set-out of the episode and his reply contains his desperate claim to be part of the village in spite of his increasing sense of alienation. With her statement, ...   more »

Let me start my paper on representations of Romanies in recent German films by quoting from one of the two films I am going to focus on below. It is a statement that curiously mirrors this conference’s title and yet displays difference. In Edgar Reitz’s film chronicle Heimat, episode 1 entitled “Fernweh”, the alleged Gypsy Apollonia, herself at the very periphery of the closely-knit community of the Schabbach village conveys to the episode’s protagonist Paul Simon “du bis sowieso anners wie die Leut im Dorf”, you are different to the people in the village, to ...   more »

Ideologising popular culture: The case of contemporary political songs in Ireland Stefanie Bach, University of Strathclyde   more »

Apollonia

Edgar Reitz, Heimat, Episode 1: Fernweh

Die Figur der Apollonia spielt in Edgar Reitz‘ Film Heimat, Episode "Fernweh", ...   more »

German History from the Margins In Clemens Brentano's novella, "Die Mehreren Wehmüller und ungarische Nationalgesichter" (1817), the characters ...   more »

Musical gypsies and anti-classical aesthetics: The Romantic reception of Goethe's Mignon character in Brentano's "Die Mehreren Wehmüller und Ungarische Nationalgesichter" ...   more »

Introduction

Irish culture has traditionally been seen as a very musical culture. In fact, Irish culture is seen to find ...   more »