Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module students should be able to:
1. demonstrate a critical understanding of the individual texts on this course;
2. apply close reading skills focused on individual textual elements (including formal components) to an investigation of that text's larger meaning;
3. situate the literary writing on this course in its national, historical, social, political and scholarly critical contexts;
4. make informed comparisons between texts from the different Irish writers studied;
5. contribute effectively to peer group discussion and analysis of issues relating to modern Irish literature;
6. complete the two required assignments - the mid-term close-reading assignment and the end-of-term formal essay - on topics related to the course.
Indicative Module Content:
This course will explore the representation of the individual, the community, and the nation in Irish literature from the late nineteenth century to the present. It will attend to the following genres:
- Poetry: we will treat two key poets, W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939) and Paula Meehan (1944 – 2020). Exploration of the work of Yeats will encompass early poetry, his involvement in the Irish Revival, as well as his late work.
- The Novel: we will read Portrait of an Artist by James Joyce (1882 – 1941)
- The Short Story: we will engage with a selection of material from the mid-century years and the work of one major Irish short story writer: Eilis Ni Dhuibhne (b.1954)