ENG20440 Reading the story of Ireland: Irish Literature in English

Academic Year 2020/2021

This course will explore the representation of the individual, the community, and the nation in Irish literature and drama from the late nineteenth century to the present. It will attend to the genres of poetry (Yeats and Boland), fiction (Joyce’s bildungsroman and Bowen’s short stories), and drama (O’Casey and Carr). Of particular importance will be the role of writers in the creation of powerful narratives of national identity at key moments in Irish history, and the interrogation of these by later generations of authors. The reception of the course texts, both at home and abroad, will be examined, as will the ways in which the authors treated have shaped the critical canon of modern Irish writing.

Themes covered in these lectures may include the following: narratives of nation; history and the passage of time; place/landscape; mobility/trans-nationalism; hybrid identities; the relationship between the public and the private spheres; cultural and political (in)stability and the idea of revolution; war and violence; the role of art and the power of language and other sign systems; gender and power; religion, spirituality and the uncanny; memory and imagination; the body.

Students are expected to engage in detail with the primary texts and to be able to situate them in their Irish cultural contexts (to this end, students are advised to develop a basic working knowledge of key developments in Irish history from c.1880 to the present). We will explore how these authors deploy the resources of their chosen genre, examining how they challenge and / or extend the conventions of narrative, verse, theatre and text production in order to communicate meaning. Students are encouraged to consider how a range of relevant theory, for example, postcolonialism, gender, and cultural materialism, sheds light on these writers’ works.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students should be able to:

1. demonstrate a critical understanding of the individual texts on this course;
2. apply close reading skills focused on individual textual elements (including formal components) to an investigation of that text's larger meaning;
3. situate the literary writing on this course in its national, historical, social, political and scholarly critical contexts;
4. make informed comparisons between texts from the different Irish writers studied;
5. contribute effectively to peer group discussion and analysis of issues relating to modern Irish literature;
6. complete the two required smaller written assignments and a formal essay on topics related to the course.





Indicative Module Content:

Students will read key selected Irish literary texts written between the late 19th century and the present day. For Autumn 2020, these texts will include the following:

- the poetry of W.B.Yeats (written between the 1880s and the 1930s);
- James Joyce's coming-of-age novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916);
- short stories by Elizabeth Bowen (written in the 1930s, '40s and '50s);
- Sean O'Casey's play, Juno and the Paycock (1924);
- the poetry of Eavan Boland (written between the 1960s and the present;
- Marina Carr's play, By the Bog of Cats (1998)



Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

12

Small Group

12

Specified Learning Activities

36

Autonomous Student Learning

40

Total

100

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
- Weekly Lectures (in Autumn 2020, lectures will be delivered on-line in pre-recorded units, released at the same time each week);
- Weekly small-group workshop engagement: in these workshops, the main course texts already treated in lectures will be discussed in detail, alongside key aspects of debate on Irish literature more generally (note that in Autumn 2020, workshops will be held on-line, in 'real time' (live), using the Virtual Classroom facility on Brightspace);
- Critical writing
- Contributions to on-line discussion board (through Brightspace)

In this module, there will be a particular focus on close reading skills and on linking and comparing primary texts on the basis of key issues arising in Irish social, cultural, political and literary life from the later 19th century to the present day. In so linking texts, we will explore how Irish writing addresses its various Irish and international audiences, whether at the time of writing or subsequently.
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Incompatibles:
ENG20260 - Irish Literature, ENG31270 - Irish Literature (EVENING)


 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment: Assignment 1: Close Reading - 800 words
Unspecified n/a Graded No

20

Assignment: Assignment 2: Critical Essay Evaluation - 800 words
Unspecified n/a Graded No

20

Essay: Essay - 2,000 words Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

60


Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

- Individual feedback prior to assessments will be offered on an ongoing basis, through Workshop-leaders' responses to students' in-class debate contribution and associated activities. Informal peer review will be incorporated as part of workshop debate and discussion board contribution, overseen by the workshop leader. - Individual feedback on the two smaller writing assignments will be delivered on-line through Brightspace after its submission (this mid-trimester Assignment is due in approximately Week 6 of the trimester); workshop leaders will make appointment slots available for one-to-one feedback on these two assignments, after the results are published to students. Group / whole class feedback on general achievements and areas for improvement in Assignments 1 and 2, will be offered by the workshop leader and/or the module co-ordinator, after the results of these assignments has been published to students. - Individual feedback on the final essay (due after the end of the teaching trimester) will be delivered on-line through Brightspace. The module co-ordinator will be available to discuss the result of this essay with individual students, on request.

Main texts:

Boland, Eavan. New Selected Poems. Carcanet, 2013.

Bowen, Elizabeth - short stories. The Bowen stories to be treated in this module are to be confirmed, but are likely to include the following: "The Demon Lover", "The Happy Autumn Fields", "Her Table Spread", "The Tommy Crans" and "Sunday Afternoon".

Harrington, John P (ed). Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama. 2nd Edition, Norton Critical Editions, 2008 [Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock and Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats].

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. W.W. Norton and Company, 2007

Yeats, W. B. Selected Poems, ed. Timothy Webb. Penguin Books, 2000.
Name Role
Dr Catríona Clutterbuck Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Assoc Professor Lucy Collins Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Assoc Professor Luca Crispi Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Professor Margaret Kelleher Lecturer / Co-Lecturer