Spring 2023
CELTIC R1B 001 - LEC 001
Voices of the Celtic World
The Northern Irish Troubles
Matthew Shelton
Class #:21207
Units:4
Instruction Mode:
In-Person Instruction
Offered through
Celtic Studies
Current Enrollment
Total Open Seats:
2
Enrolled: 15
Waitlisted: 0
Capacity: 17
Waitlist Max: 3
No Reserved Seats
Hours & Workload
3 hours of instructor presentation of course materials, and 9 hours of outside work hours.
Other classes by Matthew Shelton
Course Catalog Description
Reading and composition course based on works of Celtic writers both in English and in translations from Celtic languages. In addition to training in textual analysis and descriptive and argumentative writing, the courses will discuss the notion of Celtic "voices": distinctive modes of cultural expression chosen by important authors from a Celtic milieu. Readings will be chosen from a variety of modern Irish, Welsh, highland Scots, and Breton writers. R1A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R1B satisfies the second half.
Class Description
The primary focus of this course is the improvement of your writing. Since R1B is an intensive college writing course, issues of development and style are presented at an advanced level. Further, students are to receive attention to their writing through detailed comments on their essays and through discussion in class and during office hours.
For this course we will be using Northern Irish poet Ciarán Carson’s book Belfast Confetti as a narrative scaffolding in order to engage with a range of literary and scholarly texts and authors, including the arch-flâneur Charles Baudelaire, 20th Century theorist and critic Walter Benjamin, and philosopher Michel Foucault. Carson’s book is especially concerned with the Northern Irish Troubles, a sectarian conflict which lasted from the late 1960s until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. More recently the book has become newly relevant in the context of Brexit and its consequences in Northern Ireland as well as the rest of the UK. But Northern Ireland’s troubled past poses important questions outside its own immediate geography, providing as it does a case study through which to examine issues of Nationalism and National Identity, the Individual in Society, the intersection of Aesthetics and Politics, the role of Literature in times of War, Intertextuality and Political Engagement, etc. Although these issues are directly relevant to Northern Ireland and the texts with which we will be engaging this term, they also carry broader consequences and ramifications in terms of the world at large.
Some of the more particular concerns of our readings include, but are by no means limited to: 1.) the rhetoric of sectarian conflict (i.e. “Us versus Them” and the dehumanization of the Other); 2.) “Irish” identity and the formation of self in the context of civil unrest and outright religious and political violence; 3.) aesthetics, the literary author, and political engagement; and 4.) the wider ramifications of our course texts to our own contemporary world. These concerns will inform our reading as well as our writing during the course of the semester, allowing students to develop analytical and interpretive skills while exploring the interconnectedness of reading and writing in scholarly inquiry.
Prerequisites
This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement for the Bachelor’s Degree. Courses taken to fulfill this requirement must be taken for a letter grade.
Required Texts:
• Carson, Ciarán. Belfast Confetti. Winston-Salem: Wake Forest UP, 1989.
ISBN 9780916390402
• Hacker, Diana, and Nancy Sommers. A Pocket Style Manual. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
8th Edition (2017) ISBN: 9788925598406
9th Edition (2020) ISBN: 9781319169541
• Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts. 2nd Logan: Utah State UP, 2017.
ISBN: 9781607326861
• All other required readings will be provided in PDF format in our shared course GoogleDrive.
Class Notes
This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completin.. show more
Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completin.. show more
This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.
Due to the high demand for R&C courses we monitor attendance very carefully. Attendance is mandatory the first two weeks of classes, this includes all enrolled and wait listed students. If you do not attend all classes the first two weeks you may be dropped. If you are attempting to add into this class during weeks 1 and 2 and did not attend the first day, you will be expected to attend all class meetings thereafter and, if space permits, you may be enrolled from the wait list. show less
Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.
Due to the high demand for R&C courses we monitor attendance very carefully. Attendance is mandatory the first two weeks of classes, this includes all enrolled and wait listed students. If you do not attend all classes the first two weeks you may be dropped. If you are attempting to add into this class during weeks 1 and 2 and did not attend the first day, you will be expected to attend all class meetings thereafter and, if space permits, you may be enrolled from the wait list. show less
Rules & Requirements
Requisites
- Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.
Repeat Rules
Course is not repeatable for credit.
Requirements class fulfills
Second half of the Reading and Composition Requirement
Reserved Seats
Current Enrollment
No Reserved Seats
Textbooks & Materials
See class syllabus or https://calstudentstore.berkeley.edu/textbooks for the most current information.
Guide to Open, Free, & Affordable Course Materials
Associated Sections
None