Module description
The module will introduce students to the extraordinary variety of Irish literature produced during the twentieth century. We will study such major writers as James Joyce, W.B Yeats, J.M Synge, Elizabeth Bowen and Seamus Heaney, and place their work in the context of a period that included such traumatic events as colonial occupation, a war of independence, partition, civil war, and a protracted period of social violence in Northern Ireland.
The module is organised thematically around significant events, cultural movements and social phenomena, and a range of theoretical and contextual material will be introduced through the lecture programme. Students will be encouraged to recognise the diversity of Irish identities during this period and to read this diversity in the context of such issues as language, territory, nationalism, gender, partition, and religion. No prior knowledge of Irish literature or history is assumed.
Assessment details
Portfolio assessment of 3,000 words with one end-of-semester deadline (100%)
Teaching pattern
1 hour lecture & 1 hour seminar
Suggested reading list
Key Texts
- James Joyce, Dubliners, ed. Terence Brown (London: Penguin, 1992), ISBN: 0141182458
- J.M Synge, The Playboy of the Western World / Riders to the Sea (London: Dover Thrift Editions, 1993), ISBN: 0486275620
- W.B Yeats, Selected Poems (London: Penguin Books, 2000), ISBN: 0141181257
- Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September (London: Penguin Books, 1990), ISBN: 0140183043
- Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds (London: Penguin Books, 2000), ISBN: 0141182687
- Brian Friel, Translations (London: Faber, 1981), ISBN: 0571117422
- Poems by Eavan Boland, Medbh McGuckian, Paula Meehan (to be circulated)
- Seamus Heaney, Wintering Out (London: Faber, 1972), ISBN: 0571101585