Perspectives in Irish Writing

Perspectives in Irish Writing
ECTS Allocation: 20
Course Coordinators: Prof Grene, Dr Patten
Teaching Faculty: Prof Ian Campbell-Ross, Dr James Kelly, Dr Eve Patten, Prof Nicholas Grene, Dr Jarlath Killeen, Mr Gerald Dawe, Dr Thomas Walker, Dr Paul Delaney, Dr Brian Cliff
Contact: 2 hrs per week in Michaelmas term and Hilary term

This course introduces students to the socio/cultural contexts in which Irish writing in English developed from the late seventeeth century through to the twenty-first century. It investigates key terms that students will encounter in the critical literature on Irish writing and culture: Anglo-Irish, Protestant Ascendancy, the Gaelic tradition, colonialism, the Big House, romantic and cultural nationalism, the Literary Revival. In addition to covering the significant authors of the tradition, it also addresses such issues as authorship, publishing history and reception as they bear on the emergence and development of a national literature in English and explores a number of theoretical issues.

Schedule

Michaelmas Term:

Introduction to Irish Writing 1590-1800
1. Introduction to key themes and concepts covering the period. [ICR]

Ideas of the Nation 1691-1820
2. [Anon], Vertue Rewarded ; or, The Irish Princess (1693); Sarah Butler, Irish Tales (1716).[ICR]
3. Oliver Goldsmith, ‘A Description of the Manners and Customs of the Native Irish',‘Carolan the Bard', ‘The Deserted Village' (1764). [ICR]
4. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). [JimK]
5. Maria Edgeworth , Castle Rackrent (1800). [JK]
6. Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820); section 1. [JimK]

 Reading Week

Introduction to Irish writing 1800-1900
8. Reading Victorian Ireland: William Carleton's ‘Wildgoose Lodge' (1844). [EP]
9. James Clarence Mangan and The Nation newspaper. [EP]
10. Dion Boucicault, The Colleen Bawn. [NG]

Towards the Revival
11. Oscar Wilde, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and other stories [JarlathK]
12. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray . [JarlathK]

Hilary Term

Edwardian Ireland
1. George Bernard Shaw, John Bull's Other Island . [NG]
2. John Millington Synge, The Playboy of the Western World . [NG]

 Revolution, war and Irish Writing
3. 1916 and the Great War: Patrick Pearse, Thomas Mac Donagh, Francis Ledwidge.
Readings from Earth Voices Whispering: Irish poetry of war 1914-1945   [GD]
4. 1920s reactions: Sean O'Faolain, Liam O'Flaherty. Photocopies will be provided .  [GD]

Nation and the International Crisis – 1930s to 1950s
5. The Emergency at Home: Patrick Kavanagh, 'Spraying the Potatoes', 'The Great Hunger' and 'Lough Derg' [TW]
6. The War Abroad: Elizabeth Bowen, The Demon Lover and Other Stories (1945) [T W].

Study Week

Ireland, modernity and the prose tradition
8. William Trevor Short Stories [PD]
9. John McGahern, Amongst Women [PD]

Towards contemporary Irish writing
10. From Heaney to Muldoon [BC]
11. Writing the new nation: Pat McCabe [BC]

Current Writing
12. Emma Donoghue, Hood [BC]