Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate indepth knowledge of the ways in which modern and contemporary Irish dramatists and theatre makers have:
– 1] represented and challenged state and other official configurations of sexuality;
– 2] represented and challenged the ways in which governments and their agents have mobilized sexuality as a tool for social control.
• Critically evaluate the ways in which Irish dramatists and theatre makers who explore sexuality have utilized radical strategies in terms of dramatic form, structure, playwriting, spectatorship, and dramaturgy.
• Theoretically elaborate the effects of colonialism, nationalism, and contemporary consumerism and socio-economic policies and practices, on Irish sexualities.
• Articulate in scholarly terms a broad history of sexualities, sexual politics, and sexual health in 20th and 21st century Ireland.
• Be capable of expressing critical judgement clearly and effectively while also being able to speak and write with clarity, precision, depth, and style; thereby developing and demonstrating critical thinking, theoretical knowledge, and a scholarly vocabulary appropriate to writing about drama and related socio-political discourses that explore issues of gender, sexuality, and sexual health.
• Demonstrate sophisticated skills in detailed textual analysis and close reading while also acquiring a command of appropriate literary terminology and be able to apply this to the analysis of the texts concerned.
• Become an effective researcher in this field of study, able to locate appropriate sources of information and to evaluate and use this knowledge in their oral and written work; be able to effectively manage research time and work both independently and collaboratively.
Indicative Module Content:
- Understanding Heteronormativity
- Queering the Colony: Tracing Imperial Heteronormativity
- Virgin Mother Ireland: Women, Nation, and the Family Cell
- Gay Men on the Irish Stage: From Sinister Antagonist to Proud Protagonist
- Lesbian Identities and the Patriarchal Gaze: Hidden Histories
- HIV and AIDS and their Metaphors: Sexual Health and the Cultural Politics of Stigma
- Essay Writing Workshop.
- Understanding Homonormativity: Good Gays versus Bad Queers