English 125 - Spring, 2013

Topics in Irish Literature

Class Information

Instructor: Lloyd, David
Time: MWF 12:10-1:00
Location: 146 Olson

Description

This course will serve as an introduction to the range of Irish writing of the 20th and 21st centuries, exemplifying its many forms and possibilities, in poetry, prose and drama. We will commence with the Irish Revival of the early 20th century and its relation to cultural and military nationalism, and then explore the very diverse responses to that extraordinary period of literary production and decolonization by James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, and Samuel Beckett. We will end by sampling some of the poetry that emerged in the period of resurgent decolonizing struggle in Northern Ireland (the Troubles) and with a novel that reflects back on the short-lived Irish boom, Anne Enright’s The Forgotten Waltz. Students will be expected to come to class having read the assigned materials carefully and to speak about them in class. In addition to the required books, there will be a course pack of shorter works and extracts, also required.

Grading

Response paper (3 pages): 15%
Response paper (5 pages): 25%
Final research paper (8 pages): 40%
Oral Presentations: 10%
Participation: 10%

Texts

Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw
Playboy of the Western World, John Millington Synge
Endgame, Samuel Beckett
The Last September, Elizabeth Bowen
The Forgotten Waltz, Anne Enright