St Mary's Academic to Speak at the University of Vienna Distinguished Lecture Series

Prof Lance Pettitt of the Centre for Irish Studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham will give the eighth in a collective series of Distinguished Lectures to mark the Easter Rising of 1916 at the University of Vienna on 9^th June. Participants come from universities in Germany, Austria, Ireland, France and the UK, and have also included a screening of the 1916: The Irish Rebellion (2015) from Notre Dame University/Keogh Chair of Irish Studies. It has become common-place to note that the Easter Rising was like the staging of a play or a theatrical event, and that the “Proclamation of the Irish Republic” pasted up in Dublin city center was mistaken by some to be a play bill. In his lecture, Prof Pettitt argues instead that the Rising was eminently cinematic. With the title, Risings, Reels and Revisionists he explore the ways that cinema first reported on and then, successively over the years, how film and TV have represented the tumultuous and definitive actions in Dublin on screens. From the Pathe newsreels through to Neil Jordan’s depiction of the devastation in Michael Collins (1996) - shot in real time, real ordinance and thousands of Dubliners as extras - through to the plethora of TV and film documentaries that were released for the centenary in 2016, the lecture will show how film has worked for audiences in each generation, re-visioning the Rising to something like a mature reflection of its multi-faceted significance in Irish-British history. As well as illustrating the lecture with film clips, Prof Pettitt will use script excerpts from unproduced films about Roger Casement and 1916. To follow the lecture on Twitter follow @CISLondon. For more materials on this lecture see www.lancepettitt.com/news