1 Irish identity and the metaphor of liquidity in Irish Drink ads Carmen Kuhling (UL) and Kieran Keohane (UCC) Based on Cosmopolitan Ireland: Globalisation.

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Irish identity and the metaphor of liquidity in Irish Drink ads

Irish identity and the metaphor of liquidity in Irish Drink ads

Carmen Kuhling (UL) and Kieran Keohane (UCC)

Based on Cosmopolitan Ireland: Globalisation and Quality of Life

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Collective RepresentationsCollective Representations Collective representations … are the product of an

immense co-operation that extends not only through space but also through time; to make them a multitude of different minds have associated, intermixed and combined their ideas and feelings; long generations have accumulated their experience and knowledge A very special intellectuality that is infinitely richer and more complex than that of the individual is distilled in them

(Durkheim: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life)

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The ‘spirit’ of a societyThe ‘spirit’ of a society

In a collective representation we find in condensed form the animating principles the vitality of a society , the collective esperit de corps, the Zeitgiest, the spirit that unifies and vivifies collective life in a given time and space.

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AmbivalenceAmbivalence

Collective representations represent the ambivalent libidinal economy of a society: the fears and desires, conceits and uncertainties that animate social life and the body politic. These mixed feelings are expressed in cultural phenomena.

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The Ideal type memberThe Ideal type member

“Each and every society constructs an ideal type member who embodies the values and virtues of their society. The ideal type member is the model that others aspire to emulate and is the cornerstone of the entire social order.”

(Durkheim; Sociology & Philosophy)

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An Ideal Type: Fr TedAn Ideal Type: Fr Ted

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Collision CultureCollision Culture The global and the local, community and society,

tradition and modernity are not forms of life that supersede one another in linear historical progress, but that exist contemporaneously and interpenetrate with one another, collide and collude with one another in the time/space of contemporary Ireland.

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Liquid ModernityLiquid Modernity There is no such thing as Modernity, the modern

world, or a singular, linear process of modernization that brought it into being; instead, there are multiple modernities, a plurality of modern worlds and multiple processes of modernization. There are also multiple traditions, for ‘Tradition’ refers to a world constructed retrospectively by modernity as a constitutive outside from which modernity gains a positive ontology and definition of form.

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The Irish experience of accelerated modernisation

The Irish experience of accelerated modernisation Ads; can help interpret some of the collective

representations of Irishness condensations of contradictory and competing

discourses and forces; Celtic/ Cyborg; ‘glacial’/ accelerated time; Romantic/ futuristic Ireland.

Fears and anxieties emerging from experience of accelerated modernisation; the reconfigured relationships between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’

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Older ads: ‘The Power of Purity’Older ads: ‘The Power of Purity’ Older Ballygowan ads:

Children of Lir, the Chase, the butterfly;

Appeal to ‘premodern’, Romantic representation of ‘Celtic’ Ireland,

Time wars; chrono-politics

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Ballygowan; ‘Bodies Never Lie’; aspirational cosmopolitanism

Ballygowan; ‘Bodies Never Lie’; aspirational cosmopolitanism

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Guinness Ads: ‘Know what is important’Guinness Ads: ‘Know what is important’ Invokes idea of ‘glacial time’ to appeal to sense of past,

tradition, sense of permanence; ‘Tom Crean’, ‘Best Mates’.

Also past, ‘call out’, ‘San Jose’. Tries to reconstruct idea of ‘collective conscience’, of

unified, homogenous community characterised by mechanical solidarity

Is appealing to postmodern societies; Fred Jameson speaks of ‘nostalgia’, cultural depthlessness, as ‘the postmodern condition.

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‘Tom Crean’, ‘Best Mates’‘Tom Crean’, ‘Best Mates’

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‘Best Mates’- ‘Knowing what matters’- Guiness‘Best Mates’- ‘Knowing what matters’- Guiness

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‘Knowing what matters’‘Knowing what matters’ Guinness ad campaign ‘knowing what matters’

paradoxically appeal to a traditional version of Irish community and solidarity; mechanical solidarity, (Durkheim), Gameinschaft (Tonnies).

Nostalgia; part of the postmodern condition (Jameson) Paradox: Guinness is now owned by Diageo, a global,

multinational corporation, that has recently sold off Pillsbury foods and Burger King to focus on its drinks business.

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Jameson adJameson ad

Different, more cosmopolitan imageAcknowledges hybrid identities

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Bakhtin and polyphonyBakhtin and polyphony Jameson ads theme of ‘beyond the obvious’ challenges

conventional notions of Irishness by juxtaposing symbols of ‘trad’ culture with minorities;

Bakhtin: polyphony. Need multiple and even contradictory voices to overcome ‘monovocality’.

When where we speak from is ignored, we drown out polyvocality; ‘Whiteness studies’

‘We tend to focus on portraying marginalised, gay or ethnic characters in ‘positive’ light but what is considered ‘positive’…is not up for debate’ (Ging, 2003)

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ConclusionConclusion All of these cultural products capture various

dimensions of the Irish experience of globalisation: they appeal to a version of premodern Celtic Culture and/ or traditional solidarity at the same time as they exhibit characteristics of a postmodern, hybridised global cultural product.

Multiethnic Irish imaginary. Book launch for Cosmopolitan Ireland: IFI, Thurs Oct

18th, 6:30 pm. All Wecome!

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IrelantisIrelantis

Sean Hillen’s Irelantis