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.

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 Declan Kiberd and P. J. Mathews excellent compendium Handbook of the Irish Revival as an historical scaffolding in order to engage with a range of literary and scholarly texts and authors, including W. B. Yeats’s The Celtic Twilight, Lady Augusta Gregory’s Cuchulain of Muirthemne, and J. M. Synge’s The Aran Islands. But we will also be reading the work of other major figures of the Irish Revival, such as Standish O’Grady, Emily Lawless, Douglas Hyde, Patrick Pearse, and many other, providing as they do 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 Civic Unrest, Intertextuality and Political Engagement, etc. Although these issues are directly relevant to the Irish Literary Revival 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. Indeed, Ireland would go on to become a model for similar National Independence movements in Egypt, India, and beyond, during the first half of the 20th Century. 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 over the course of the semester, allowing students to develop analytical and interpretive skills while exploring the interconnectedness of reading and writing in scholarly inquiry.

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