Aintzane Legarreta Mentxaka (died 10 February 2022) was a Basque writer and academic, who was based in Dublin, County Dublin, Leinster, Ireland.[1]
Biography
Mentxaka was a scholar of English literature, specialising in modernism. She is the author of The Postcolonial Traveller (2016),[2] and Kate O'Brien and the Fiction of Identity (2011).[3] According to The Irish Examiner, "[her] prose is clear, well-written and informative, and opens new and fascinating doors to the interpretation of O'Brien's novels".[4]The Postcolonial Traveller offers, in the words of Paddy Woodworth, a series of "sophisticated arguments" on O'Brien's novel Mary Lavelle, analysing it "provocatively and . . . fruitfully".[5]
According to the European Journal of English Studies, Kate O'Brien and the Fiction of Identity reads like "a challenging detective story, scholarly, yet unpredictable."[6] Mentxaka has published on the work of Woolf, Joyce, Richardson, Kate O'Brien, and others.[7]
She also wrote plays.[8] They include A Pair of New Eyes (2013),[9]For Valentine (2009, 2014),[10]Visitor (AD 1585) (2015),[11]One Nite Stand: A Shakespearean Tragicomedy (2014),[12]Alien in Bewleys (1999), and Grainne (2015, co-written with J. Costello, K. Doyle, and L. Errity).[13] The play A Pair of New Eyes was included in "Ten Things To Do" in Gay Community News magazine, which summarised it as "Romance, friendship, betrayal, seduction, and two respectable ladies".[14][15] Mentxaka collaborated with a group of writers for a performance of The Ministers.[16]
^Paddy Woodworth. "Foreword". A.L. Mentxaka, 'The Postcolonial Traveller', Palo Alto (Ca): Academica Press, 2016, pp. ix–x.
^"[Mentxaka's book] reads like a challenging detective story, scholarly, yet unpredictable, and sparkling with good spirits. . . I was impressed by the historical approach to continental socialism devoid of prejudice, [and] took pleasure in Mentxaka's chronicle of industrial Bilbao's life and struggles . . . As a film lover, and a fan of Victorian and modern English literatures, I was equally impressed." he European English Messenger (journal of the European Society for the Study of English), Volume 22.1 (Summer 2013): 91–3.
^'Claire O'Brien interviews A.L. Mentxaka, 'Arena' Arts and Culture, Midlands 103 Radio, 4 September 2014. http://www.midlandsradio.fm/
^Dublin: Gur Cake Editions, 2013. Premiered Sean O'Casey Theatre, Dublin. Other productions: 24–30 August 2014, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin; on tour August 2014 at The Hermitage, Pearse Museum, Rathfarnham, September 2014 at Birr Theatre, Birr, Offaly.
^Premiered 18 May 2014, at Aldelphi Theatre, Dublin.
^Premiered in Dublin Castle (Dublin, Ireland), 23 August 2015.
^From an idea by Auxi Martinez. Premiered 18 May 2014, Adelphi Theatre, Dublin.
^Premiered 24 November 2015 at Adelphi Theatre, Dublin.
^See also FINAL DRAFT journal, Issue 173, October 2013, the FWSA Newsletter, Issue 61, September 2013, and the E-Bulletin of Dublin City Arts Council Arts Office Newsletter, Dublin City Council Arts Office, October 2013.
^The Ministers (Presentation of the First Revolutionary Government of an Independent Ireland, August 1916), by J. Costello, K. Doyle, L. Errity, and A. L.Mentxaka. Premiered 24 August 2016 in the chapel at Dublin Castle.