Thesis advisor: Kevin O'Neill / This is a study of mna caointe, Irish keening women. Ranging from the semi-professional to the more occasional, mna caointe performed the caoineadh (Irish women's lament) at wakes and funerals and led their communities in the public expression of grief. Their performances included extemporaneously composed, sung, oral elegiac poetry, interspersed with choruses of wailing cries. In addition to praising the deceased, mourning his/her passing, and aggressively criticizing his/her enemies, mna caointe articulated their own concerns and assorted social tensions. Mna caointe grieved incidents of domestic violence and social slights and cursed those who offended them. The practice of the caoineadh originated prior to the Christian period in Ireland and ceased in the early twentieth century. Employing a multitude of diverse source material, this study relies most heavily upon folklore manuscripts held by the Department of Irish Folklore at the National University of Ireland, Dublin in Belfield. Unlike the works of scholars of folklore, music, and literature that have preceded, this study examines mna caointe to better understand the dynamics of colonialism and community and to elucidate moments of innovation involving women and understandings of identity, death, and power. This work chronicles the religious and historical significance of mna caointe, from the medieval period through the twentieth century Irish Diaspora, by contextualizing the practice and performers, in various cultural settings. Throughout these periods, keening and mna caointe were central to both positive and pejorative definitions of "Irish" identity. In medieval mythology, keening was one of the ways otherworldly women demonstrated the intimate connection between the land and those who resided upon it. In the colonial era, British colonists and travel writers cited the caoineadh and mna caointe among the elements that made Irish culture inferior. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, aware of colonizers' disdain, agrarian agitators, Eileen O'Connell (the most famous keening woman), and Daniel O'Connell resorted to folk traditions centered on allegorical women and keening to protest British ascendancy, as well as political and economic injustice. Through their performances, nineteenth century mna caointe managed grief for their communities, mediated between the living and the dead, effected the transfer of the deceased to the afterlife by impersonating supernatural females, and provided women and colonized Irish with tools to rhetorically resist domination. Though economically marginal, for much of the nineteenth century, skilled mna caointe were compensated in ways that demonstrated their value and importance to rural communities. Demographic changes that began before the mid-nineteenth century Irish Potato Famine and accelerated after, especially the rise of strong farmers and the decimation of the laboring poor, resulted in the slow and uneven decline in hiring mna caointe. While Catholic priests and Roman devotions usurped many of their functions, and religious and cultural underpinnings of the caoineadh deteriorated, folk traditions regarding the mediatory role of longhaired mourning women persisted into the twentieth century Irish Diaspora. The legacy of mna caointe can be found in how the Irish ritualized emigration, conceived transatlantic identity, redefined community, and understood the bean si (banshee, i.e. the Irish supernatural death messenger). In sum, Irish history and culture are more fully understood through an examination of mna caointe. Their mythological heritage, religious significance, and legacy demonstrate ways that largely disenfranchised Irish women employed understandings of the transcendent to shape, protest, and change their lives. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

In the scholarship surrounding piano repertoire, Henry Cowell is seen as a kind of “one-hit-experimental-wonder,” being know mostly for his astonishingly progressive piece The Banshee. However, Cowell was an enigmatic composer, a diverse scholar, an influential proponent new music, as well as a music theorist and comparative musicologist. Therefore in order to gain a more complete understanding of Cowell and his deeply influential piano works, this project seeks to explore the philosophical, cultural, and non- Western musical influences that inspired Cowell’s novel experimentation at the piano.

Titel: Banshee - En mytologisk varelse i dagens mediesamhälle Författare: Kimberly Seitola Handledare: Stefan Larsson Ämne: Religionsvetenskap    Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur den irländska mytologiska varelsen banshee gestaltas i dagens mediesamhälle.   Teori: Den här uppsatsen använder sig av receptionsteorin, vilken riktar sig mot producenten, åskådaren och läsaren.   Frågeställningar: Uppsatsen utgår från följande frågeställningar: Hur har gestaltningarna av den mytologiska varelsen banshee förändrats i media i jämförelse med irländsk folktro? Hur uppfattar åskådarna mediernas gestaltning av den mytologiska varelsen banshee?   Metod: Metoderna som uppsatsen använder sig av är innehållsanalys samt jämförande metod. Metoderna valdes för att de bland annat kompletterar varandra.   Material: Uppsatsens empiri består av allt vetenskapligt publicerat material rörande den mytologiska varelsen banshee, kortfilmen Banshee från 2014, den amerikanska tv-serien Teen Wolf samt internetforum och dess olika kommentarsfält.   Resultat: Uppsatsen identifierar att mediernas gestaltning av banshee liknar den irländska folktrons. Forskningen även skillnader mellan folktron och mediernas framställning. Undersökningar av publikens perspektiv visar att den mytologiska varelsen banshee väcker en form av nyfikenhet bland dagens medieanvändare. / Title: Banshee – A mythological creature in today's media society Author: Kimberly Seitola Supervisor: Stefan Larsson Subject: Religious studies   Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to investigate how the Irish mythological creature banshee is shaped in today's media society.   Theory: This essay uses the reception theory, which targets the producer, the spectator and the reader.   Objectives and focus: The essay is based on the following questions: How have the representation of the mythological creature banshee changed in the media in comparison with Irish folklore? How do the perpetrators perceive the media's design of the mythological creature banshee?   Method: The methods that the essay uses is content analysis and comparative method. The methods were chosen because they complement each other.   Material: The essay's empirical essay consists of all scientifically published material relating to the mythological creature banshee, the short film Banshee from 2014, the American television series Teen Wolf, Internet forums and their various commentary fields.   Result: The essay identifies that the form of banshee in the media is similar to the Irish folklore. The research also shows differences between the Irish folklore and media production. Analyzes of the audience's perspective shows that the mythological creature banshee provokes a kind of curiosity among today's media users.

Both the “crisis of masculinity” and “quality TV” have been popular discourses in academia in recent years. Many of these contemporary quality TV series feature male anti-heroes at the center of their narratives. This dissertation argues that the constructions of masculinity in series such as "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead" are informed by the Western hero. Furthermore, the dissertation links this recourse to an arguably outmoded model of masculinity to recent crisis tendencies in the USA, most notably the recent economic downturn and the aftermath of September 11 2001. Moreover, the return of the Western hero can be understood as a process of remasculinization in light of the crisis of masculinity.

Both the “crisis of masculinity” and “quality TV” have been popular discourses in academia in recent years. Many of these contemporary quality TV series feature male anti-heroes at the center of their narratives. This dissertation argues that the constructions of masculinity in series such as "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead" are informed by the Western hero. Furthermore, the dissertation links this recourse to an arguably outmoded model of masculinity to recent crisis tendencies in the USA, most notably the recent economic downturn and the aftermath of September 11 2001. Moreover, the return of the Western hero can be understood as a process of remasculinization in light of the crisis of masculinity.

This thesis examines issues of cultural identity and modernity, and the anthropology of spirituality and sacred sites by conducting ethnographic research on fairy beliefs in contemporary Ireland. Irish folk belief has traditionally identified a spirit world intertwined with our own which is inhabited by spirits, often collectively referred to as fairies. Belief in these spirits was once widespread. My research sought to determine the prevalence of these traditional beliefs among modern Irish people within my research area, as well as differences in belief across variables including age, gender, and religious preference. I conducted eight weeks of ethnographic fieldwork during June-August 2008 in and around Sligo Town in County Sligo, Ireland. I selected County Sligo as a research site because it is a sparsely populated, largely rural area, identified in an earlier major study of Irish folklore as a region where belief in the Irish spirit world persisted more strongly than in other parts of the country. My primary research methodology was to conduct structured and unstructured interviews, complemented by visual site surveys. In the preparation of this thesis I utilized data from 52 Sligo residents plus ten other visitors to the area from surrounding Irish counties. While my research suggests that few Sligo residents from the project area continue to believe in the literal existence of fairies, it also shows a much more common belief in a "power" associated with sites identified as "fairy forts," which are natural features of the landscape or the remains of ancient burials or dwellings apocryphally endowed by folk tradition with supernatural or mysterious energies. These beliefs led to a taboo against intruding on, altering, or destroying these "forts" that is still very much alive today. Additionally I was able to discuss at length the subject of the Irish death-herald spirit called the banshee (bean sidhe) with several study participants. Although it can be classified under the umbrella label of "fairy", my research indicates that the banshee is seen as a stand-apart element of Irish tradition by research area residents, and is believed in by those who do not otherwise profess a belief in "fairies" in general.