ࡱ> +-*] Bbjbjzpzp . b bB   {2$cx  57ݐfK0{v.8"   {B ^: Name: Dr. Ed Madden Affiliation: U niversity of South Carolina Paper Title: Tabhair Dom do Lmh? Austin Clarkes Washroom Encounter In Austin Clarkes 1962 memoir Twice Round the Black Church, he recounts a schoolboy romance that ends with a homoerotic proposition in the school washroom. While critics of Clarke have focused on his anti-clerical eroticism, none have noted this homoerotic narrative, which resituates Joyces An Encounter firmly in the school washroom as internal rather than external threat. Further, it anchors the homoeroticism that suffuses Clarkes work by specifically connecting it to adolescence and the contexts of Irish language instruction and Irish nationalism. Clarke describes the proposition as an awkward and mysterious sentencetabhair dham spng (give me a spoon)like a translation from our Irish phrase book. Clarke then describes his Irish language instruction as illicit, shameful, and queerhe recounts a series of teachers with prostheses, deformities, stutters, and a tendency to pinch schoolboyswe all concluded, writes Clarke, that there was something very queer about the Irish language. In my book Tiresian Poetics (2008), I argue that Clarke connects circumcision to linguistic power. If Clarke blamed masturbationas I demonstrateon phimosis, or a penis irritated by a tight foreskin, in his memoirs he links partial circumcision to both sexual pleasure and linguistic proficiency through a pun in French, il faut couper le filet (cut the cord, loosen the tongue). If French is linked to circumcision and adult (hetero)sexual pleasure, then this narrative suggests that Irish is part of a network of male-male intimaciessweets in the pocket, pinched bums, washroom sexthat is adolescent, homoerotic, and deformed. Sexual figures in Clarke are often figures of nation. Influenced by modernist anxieties about gender and nation, Clarke described Irish poetry in 1932 as driven by fear of female sexuality, the aisling as subversive and repressed eroticism finding expression in nationalism. If repressed sexualities find expression through national discourse, this anecdote is rich. The washroom proposition is surely an echo of that emblematic Irish wedding song, Tabhair Dom do Lamh (give me your hand), and thus a queering of heteronormativity in its most traditional (Irish) forms.   !?L]ABɽɲhEhBOJQJhEhF6OJQJhEhFOJQJhEhEOJQJhn5OJQJhnhnOJQJhEhE5OJQJ ?B,1h. A!"#$% s2&6FVfv2(&6FVfv&6FVfv&6FVfv&6FVfv&6FVfv&6FVfv8XV~ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@_HmH nH sH tH @`@ NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH DA D Default Paragraph FontRiR  Table Normal4 l4a (k (No List PK![Content_Types].xmlN0EH-J@%ǎǢ|ș$زULTB l,3;rØJB+$G]7O٭Vc:E3v@P~Ds |w< B B B ԸKmոKm00D >>D 9*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagsState9*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagsplace #,LS[_ "  D A D L\]rA A D D EpiUT{F AnBB D @B @UnknownG*Ax Times New Roman5Symbol3. *Cx Arial9GaramondACambria Math"qhKg'Kg'aa hh24> > 3qHP)?F0!xx Tabhair Dom do LamhO'Toole Linda.MoloneyOh+'0  < H T`hpxTabhair Dom do LamhO'TooleNormalLinda.Moloney2Microsoft Office Word@@ @ a՜.+,0 hp  >  Tabhair Dom do Lamh Title  !#$%&'(),Root Entry F@ݐ.1Table WordDocument.SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8"CompObjr  F Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q