A comparative introduction to modern Celtic cultures: principally Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Breton. The development of the distinctive cultures of the Celtic "nations without states" from 1500 to the present; an examination of the role of minority cultures and minority languages in larger political cultural entities. Theme topics will vary, but will include folklore, nationalism and linguistic history from time to time.

The term “Celtic” – today applied to peoples, nations, cultures, music, and even sports teams – was originally adopted by linguists to refer to the family of related languages including Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Irish, Scots-Gaelic and Manx. The speakers of these languages, pushed to the western fringes of Europe, share a history of struggle against the encroaching dominance of majority languages and cultures. These pressures and a common family of languages unite the peoples of these “nations without states” as “Celts,” but it will be the aim of this course to explore themes of identity, stereotyping, and politics to assess the usefulness of such an umbrella term. In this course, we will address the meaning of “Celticness” as it has developed over the last few hundred years. We will explore stereotypes of the Celts as presented in modern film and television, as well as consider the origins of these preconceived, generalized conceptions of disparate peoples and cultures. To do this we will draw on a range of sources, including ethnographic works, biographies, and folk tales. The former group will provide insight into the realities of life for the peoples of Wales, Brittany, Scotland and Ireland in the twentieth century, while the latter will bring the cultures to life through the traditional tales they have kept alive through the ages. Additionally, we will read translations of medieval Welsh and Irish tales, as well as forgeries produced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and we will examine the relationship of these to the traditional tales as well as to the rise of Celtic Romanticism and issues of national identity inherent in that movement. Required Texts: Biographies and Ethnographies Helias, Per-Jakez. The Horse of Pride (New Haven, 1980). ISBN: 9780300025996. McPhee, J. The Crofter and the Laird (New York, 1970). ISBN: 9780374514655. Rees, A. Life in a Welsh Countryside (Cardiff, 1996). ISBN: 978-0708312711. Rowse, A. L. A Cornish Childhood (New York, 1947). Accessible online at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b115062;view=1up;seq=7 Synge, J. M. The Aran Islands (1912). Accessible online at: https://archive.org/details/aranislands00syngrich/page/n9 Carson, Ciarán. Last Night’s Fun: In and Out of Time with Irish Music. New York: FSG, 1997. ISBN: 9780865475151 Early-Modern Conceptions of Celts (Translations and Forgeries) Gray, T., “The Bard. A Pindaric Ode” (1757). Accessible online at: http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=bapo Gregory, A., Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1911). Accessible online at: https://archive.org/details/ofmuirtcuchulain00gregrich/page/n3 Guest, C., trans., The Mabinogion (1877). Accessible online at: https://archive.org/details/mabinogionfromwe00schruoft/page/n7 MacPherson, J., The Poems of Ossian (1760). Accessible online at: https://archive.org/details/fragmentsofancie02macp/page/n1 Folktales and Ballads Glassie, H., ed. Irish Folktales (New York, 1985). ISBN: 9780679774129. Reed, J., ed. Border Ballads: A Selection (Manchester,1991). ISBN: 9780856359064. Thomson, D. The People of the Sea: Celtic Tales of the Seal Folk (London, 2018). ISBN: 9781786892461. Yeats, W. B. The Celtic Twilight (1902). Accessible online at: https://archive.org/details/celtictwilight00yeatrich/page/n11 Additional readings will be made available in our shared course GoogleDrive folder.

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Requirements class fulfills