Irish literature 1800 to the present.

This course presents Irish literature from 1800 to the present. The focus is on literature written originally in Irish, though our course will read these texts in English translation. The organization of the course deeply involves genre: poetry, prose, drama, etc. Of course, Anglo-Irish literature will play a significant part in these readings in so far as those works intersect with Irish language texts. Ireland was a multilingual society from the moment that Christianity brought writing to the emerald isle in the 5th century c.e. Over the centuries English, French, Norse all had their influences, but in the modern period, from the 17th century on, Ireland was a land of two primary spoken languages: Irish and English. Latin survived until the early 20th century as a written (and occasionally spoken) language of scholarly discussion, but it was almost never used during this period for literary or popular poetic texts. Indeed, until the middle of the 19th century, most Irish people spoke Irish. The inherited literary tradition flourished until social calamities, including war and famine, played havoc with that inherited tradition. The movements of the modern period, called by many, often misleading, names (“the Irish Literary Renaissance,” “the Irish Revival,” “the Celtic Twilight,” etc. arose to account for the vibrant struggle of the language and its literature down to the present. What part did colonialism and nationalism play in the development of both language traditions in Ireland? How do poetry and prose survive under the grave circumstances presented by nightmare of history? Prerequisites: None. Course and readings are in English. Required Reading will include the following in editions to be announced: Máirtin Ó Cadhain. Graveyard Clay = Cré na Cille: A Narrative in Ten Interludes.(Tr. Tim Robinson and Liam Mac Con Iomaire.) New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. 9780300203769. Poems of Repossession: Leabhar na hAthghabhála. Ed. Louis de Paor. Bloodaxe Books, 2016. ISBN: 978 1 78037 299 0. Flann O’Brien. At Swim-Two-Birds. Dublin: Dalkey Archive Press, 13: 1-56478-181-X. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Irish Culture. Edd. Joe Cleary and Claire Connolly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 0 521 52629-9. Handbook of the Irish Revival: An Anthology of the Irish Cultural and Political Writings 1891-1922. Edd. Declan Kiberd and P. J. Matthews. James Joyce, Ulysses. Gabler Edition. 9780394743127.

Prerequisites: none.

Taught in English with readings in English.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills