Advertising, Literature and Print Culture in Ireland, 1891-1922

by J. Strachan, C. Nally

Overview

This is the first study of the cultural meanings of advertising in the Irish Revival period. John Strachan and Claire Nally shed new light on advanced nationalism in Ireland before and immediately after the Easter Rising of 1916, while also addressing how the wider politics of Ireland, from the Irish Parliamentary Party to anti-Home Rule unionism, resonated through contemporary advertising copy. The book examines the manner in which some of the key authors of the Revival, notably Oscar Wilde and W. B. Yeats, reacted to advertising and to the consumer culture around them. Illustrated with over 60 fascinating contemporary advertising images, this book addresses a diverse and intriguing range of Irish advertising: the pages of An Claidheamh Soluis under Patrick Pearse's editorship, the selling of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the advertising columns of The Lady of the House, the marketing of the sports of the Gaelic Athletic Association, the use of Irish Party politicians in First World War recruitment campaigns, the commemorative paraphernalia surrounding the centenary of the 1798 United Irishmen uprising, and the relationship of Murphy's stout with the British military, Sinn Féin and the Irish Free State.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230298736
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/07/2012
Edition description:	2012
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

JOHN STRACHAN is Professor of English Literature at the University of Northumbria, UK. His books include Advertising and Satirical Culture in the Romantic Period (2007) and, with Alison O'Malley-Younger, Ireland at War and Peace (2011). He is Associate Editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

CLAIRE NALLY is Lecturer in Twentieth-Century English Literature at the University of Northumbria, UK. Her published work includes W.B. Yeats's Occult Nationalism (2009); Naked Exhibitionism: Gender, Performance and Public Exposure, edited with Angela Smith (2012); and W.B. Yeats's A Vision: Explications and Contexts, edited with Matthew Gibson and Neil Mann (2012).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vi

Acknowledgements x

Introduction 1

Part I Advertising in Ireland 1850-1914

Prologue - The Irish Advertising Scene from the 1850s to the 1880s 19

1 Advertising and the Nation in the Irish Revival 37

Part II Print Culture

2 The Shan Van Vocht (1896-1899) and The Leader (1900-1936): National Identity in Advertising 61

3 The Sinn Féin Depot and the Selling of Irish Sport 88

4 The Lady of the House (1890-1921): Gender, Fashion and Domesticity 108

5 Unionism, Advertising and the Third Home Rule Bill-1911-1914 137

Part III 'High' Culture

6 Oscar Wilde as Editor and Writer: Aesthetic Interventions in Fashion and Material Culture 159

7 Consumerism and Anti-Commercialism: The Yeatses, Print Culture and Home Industry 178

Part IV Advertising in Ireland 1914-1922

8 Advertising, Ireland and the Great War 205

Coda - From the Armistice to the Saorstát 237

Notes 245

Bibliography 283

Index 294

Editorial Reviews

'This adventurous study of literary-mercantile relations in pre-independence Ireland makes a fresh and distinctive contribution to our understanding of Revival-era culture. The authors' skilful explication of the structural mechanics, cultural meanings and political resonances of advertising invites us to reconsider the interrelations between history, literature and consumer culture from a street-level perspective. Thoroughly researched and splendidly documented, this book will be a valuable resource for students, teachers and researchers alike.' - Liam Harte, University of Manchester, UK

'A must read. The book offers an authoritative account of the ways in which commercial information came to resonate with cultural meanings in the context of the Literary Revival, and will inspire Irish Studies scholars to think more fully about the connections between literary artefacts, print culture, visuality and economics. Fresh and compelling.'

- Claire Connolly, University College Cork, Ireland

"Anyone interested in the history or culture of Ireland in this period will find much to engage them in this thought-provoking volume." - CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections newsletter

From the Publisher