Ivan Robertson

Trinity College Dublin, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Alumnus

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Dr Ivan Robertson was born in and raised in and around New York City. Received a fine arts bachelor degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (1996), Masters and Doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin (2016). Spent several non-academic years working in theater, film, editing, film and fiction writing, editing, and publishing. Currently at work on a cultural history of New York's East Village neighborhood.

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University of Birmingham

Ben Woodard

Leuphana University

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Romy Golan

Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Didier Debaise

Université libre de Bruxelles

Baris Atiker

Adnan Menderes University

Ara H. Merjian

New York University

Ömer Durmaz

Dokuz Eylül University

Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Kathryn McDonald

Bournemouth University

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Papers by Ivan Robertson

Brackendale

Books Ireland, 1999

A Christmas Story

Books Ireland, 2000

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (2016)

Film Review of Matt Tyrnauer's documentary detailing the ongoing struggles between activist Jane ... more

Download

Situating the East Village: An Introduction

This paper explores both the reasons for and the methods by which the East Village avant-garde fi... more This paper explores both the reasons for and the methods by which the East Village avant-garde first came into being. Much of the movement’s original impetus and sense of moral purpose had roots in the pre-war persecution of the European avant-garde and Expressionist traditions under the authoritarian ideologies of the German and Soviet totalitarian regimes. American critics and writers, among them the critic Clement Greenberg in 1939 and Paul Goodman in 1951, saw worrying echoes of that ideological schism between autonomy and conformity closer to home, in the rigid social conservatism of the post-war America. They advocated arts production as a counterbalance to that conservatism and as a means of influencing the hegemony. An initially small counter-community came together in Manhattan’s traditionally impoverished Lower East Side, and began reutilising that area’s neglected urban space to suit its own specific arts-oriented ambitions. The resulting art became a means of solidifying this nascent counter-culture and creating a sustainable and protective artistic environment. In this paper, I will focus on the relationship between this fledgling counterculture and its mainstream host, establishing a lasting pattern of creation and consumption extending beyond the confines of the neighbourhood (indeed, beyond the confines of art itself). This symbiotic relationship was fuelled by the ambitions of the artists and writers on one side of the divide, and by the curiosity of the public on the other. Central too, were the more mainstream sponsors – the curators, art collectors, publishers, and journalists who mediated between the two groups – this lifestyle contextualization would prove to be a very effective marketing device. The result was a wider and active engagement, though not always an easy one, between the margins and the mainstream.

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Brooklyn Bound: Arthur Miller, Hubert Selby Jr. and Competing View of Modern Urban Realism

A paper comparing and contrasting two literary renditions of Brooklyn's 1950's working class in o... more

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Squat Berlin: The Gradual Rise and Rapid Decline of the Instandbesetzen Movement

A paper exploring the symbiotic and inherently fraught relationship between Berlin's avant-garde ... more

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Drafts by Ivan Robertson

Utopias and Heterotopias: Paul Goodman, Jane Jacobs, and the Urban Foundations of the New York Avant-Garde

This paper explores both the reasons for and the methods by which the East Village avant-garde fi... more This paper explores both the reasons for and the methods by which the East Village avant-garde first came into being. Much of the movement’s original impetus and sense of moral purpose had roots in the pre-war persecution of the European avant-garde and Expressionist traditions under the authoritarian ideologies of the German and Soviet totalitarian regimes. American critics and writers, among them the critic Clement Greenberg in 1939 and Paul Goodman in 1951, saw worrying echoes of that ideological schism between autonomy and conformity closer to home, in the rigid social conservatism of the post-war America. They advocated arts production as a counterbalance to that conservatism and as a means of influencing the hegemony. An initially small counter-community came together in Manhattan’s traditionally impoverished Lower East Side, and began re-utilising that area’s neglected urban space to suit its own specific arts-oriented ambitions. The resulting art became a means of solidifying this nascent counter-culture and creating a sustainable and protective artistic environment. In this paper, I will focus on the relationship between this fledgling counterculture and its mainstream host, establishing a lasting pattern of creation and consumption extending beyond the confines of the neighborhood (indeed, beyond the confines of art itself). This symbiotic relationship was fueled by the ambitions of the artists and writers on one side of the divide, and by the curiosity of the public on the other. Central too, were the more mainstream sponsors – the curators, art collectors, publishers, and journalists who mediated between the two groups – this lifestyle contextualization would prove to be a very effective marketing device. The result was a wider and active engagement, though not always an easy one, between the margins and the mainstream.

Download

Talks by Ivan Robertson

Heads in the Garden: Kurtz, Voss, and the Limits of Civilization

We examine the roles of law and sovereignty and the limits of civilization in the colonial experi... more We examine the roles of law and sovereignty and the limits of civilization in the colonial experience using Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” and Patrick White’s “Voss.” It examines the leitmotif of the garden, which takes on an ambiguous significance in “Heart of Darkness” and appears as an Edenic paradise in “Voss.” It can be read as symbolizing the unclaimed lands of Africa and Australia and the cultivated empires that are trying to settle in both. The motif of decapitation, too, appears across both these texts, featuring in Conrad’s work as a barbaric measure of genocide as sovereign and in “Voss” as the ultimate loss of reason and rationale.
These works can be viewed through the larger context of Hobbes’ belief in absolute sovereign authority and Agamben’s analysis of the victims of such a system, human life that can be taken away by anyone in an extended state of exception. Historical antecedents, especially during King Leopold’s annexation of the Belgian Congo, are presented as further illustration of these works, and their implications for the present moment are explored.

Download

Brackendale

Books Ireland, 1999

A Christmas Story

Books Ireland, 2000

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (2016)

Film Review of Matt Tyrnauer's documentary detailing the ongoing struggles between activist Jane ... more

Download

Situating the East Village: An Introduction

Download

Brooklyn Bound: Arthur Miller, Hubert Selby Jr. and Competing View of Modern Urban Realism

A paper comparing and contrasting two literary renditions of Brooklyn's 1950's working class in o... more

Download

Squat Berlin: The Gradual Rise and Rapid Decline of the Instandbesetzen Movement

A paper exploring the symbiotic and inherently fraught relationship between Berlin's avant-garde ... more

Download

Utopias and Heterotopias: Paul Goodman, Jane Jacobs, and the Urban Foundations of the New York Avant-Garde

This paper explores both the reasons for and the methods by which the East Village avant-garde fi... more This paper explores both the reasons for and the methods by which the East Village avant-garde first came into being. Much of the movement’s original impetus and sense of moral purpose had roots in the pre-war persecution of the European avant-garde and Expressionist traditions under the authoritarian ideologies of the German and Soviet totalitarian regimes. American critics and writers, among them the critic Clement Greenberg in 1939 and Paul Goodman in 1951, saw worrying echoes of that ideological schism between autonomy and conformity closer to home, in the rigid social conservatism of the post-war America. They advocated arts production as a counterbalance to that conservatism and as a means of influencing the hegemony. An initially small counter-community came together in Manhattan’s traditionally impoverished Lower East Side, and began re-utilising that area’s neglected urban space to suit its own specific arts-oriented ambitions. The resulting art became a means of solidifying this nascent counter-culture and creating a sustainable and protective artistic environment. In this paper, I will focus on the relationship between this fledgling counterculture and its mainstream host, establishing a lasting pattern of creation and consumption extending beyond the confines of the neighborhood (indeed, beyond the confines of art itself). This symbiotic relationship was fueled by the ambitions of the artists and writers on one side of the divide, and by the curiosity of the public on the other. Central too, were the more mainstream sponsors – the curators, art collectors, publishers, and journalists who mediated between the two groups – this lifestyle contextualization would prove to be a very effective marketing device. The result was a wider and active engagement, though not always an easy one, between the margins and the mainstream.

Download

Heads in the Garden: Kurtz, Voss, and the Limits of Civilization

Download

Ivan Robertson

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