Irish Literature Talk

Denelle Cowart, PhD, assistant professor of English at Southeastern Louisiana University, will discuss Irish writers Edith Somerville and Violet Martin, at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 12, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public.

Dr. Cowart’s talk focuses on the ways in which the lives and works of these women offer a window into a turbulent and significant period in Irish culture and politics.

Edith Somerville and her cousin Violet Martin, who wrote fiction together under the names of Somerville and Ross, were born in Ireland, in the second half of the 19th century, into what has often been termed the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy.

They lived through a time that brought about tremendous changes for all of Ireland. These changes had an enormous impact on the personal lives of Somerville and Ross and brought about changes in their attitudes and writing. Their families, although originally English, had lived in Ireland for generations as part of the group which governed Ireland from its Big Houses, the family seats which were at the center of each estate, and the cousins' short stories and novels reflect the Ireland they knew from this vantage point.  

Edith Somerville was a woman of many activities: a serious painter and an enthusiastic hunter, as well as organist at her village church for 75 years. She also helped to support herself and her family with the proceeds from her writing, and in her later years, she raised horses and sold them in America.

Violet Martin was more introspective and also more politically conservative than her cousin, but their bond was very deep. After Martin's death from a brain tumor in 1915, Edith Somerville became involved in the rage for spiritualism that was sweeping across western Europe. She took up automatic writing and came to believe not only that she was in spiritual contact with her cousin, but that they could continue their collaborative writing using this method of communication.

In many ways, she was a trailblazer. She imported the first Friesian cattle into Ireland, became the first female master of the West Carbery Hunt, and became the first President of the Munster Women's Franchise League, a suffrage group that she and Martin joined in 1910.  After Martin’s death in 1915, she continued her work in the women's rights movement.

Somerville and Ross were not directly involved in the Irish Literary Revival, but they knew most of the principals. Like the members of the Revival, they also had a deep interest in Irish language and speech. As "Anglo-Irish" writers, they also reflect the divided nature of their class, feeling loyalty both to their English heritage and connections and to their native land.

Denelle Cowart is an assistant professor of English who obtained both a Master’s degree and a PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her main area of expertise is Irish Literature, particularly the Anglo-Irish novel, and she has published articles and book chapters on the authors Maria Edgeworth, Edith Somerville, and Violet Martin. Dr. Cowart also teaches courses on Jane Austen and is an active member of the regional chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America and the Jane Austen Foundation of Mandeville. Other courses she teaches range from Shakespeare in Performance to Modernism to Detective Fiction.