Modern Irish Drama and Literature

Code

ENGL3101

School

English

Level

3

Credits

20

Semesters

Spring UK

Summary

This module will consider Irish literature and drama produced in the twentieth century. Taking the Irish Literary Revival as a starting-point we will consider authors in their Irish and European context: W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge, Lady Gregory, James Joyce, Seán O'Casey, Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel and Marina Carr. The focus throughout will be upon reading texts in relation to their social, historical, and political contexts, tracking significant literary and cultural responses to Irish experiences of colonial occupation, nationalist uprising and civil war, partition and independence, socio-economic modernisation, and the protracted period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland. Discussion will also seek to highlight a number of recurrent thematic issues, including language, tradition, gender and sexuality, class, place, and memory.

Target Students

Only available for final-year students on SH and JH English programmes; including 2+2 programmes; students participating in exchanges from the School partner institutions; and final-year students on the Liberal Arts programme.

Classes

• One 1-hour seminar each week for 11 weeks
• One 1-hour lecture each week for 11 weeks
• One 1-hour lecture each week for 11 weeks

Assessment

• Coursework 1: 1500-word DRAFT focussing on ONE text.
• 100% Coursework 2: A 3500-word academic essay, submitted at end of semester.

Assessed by end of spring semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

• Demonstrate knowledge of Irish writers and related historical and cultural contexts from the early twentieth century through to the beginning of the twenty-first century.
• Analyse and interrogate notions of ‘Irishness’ and cultural identity as represented in Irish literature, drama, and theatre with regard to a range of theoretical, socio-cultural and political approaches.
   

Intellectual skills

• Demonstrate an understanding of complex ideas, and relates them to specific problems or questions.
• Conduct research and use it with intelligence to support ideas and arguments.

Professional practical skills

• Demonstrate an ability to understand modern Irish literature and drama from different historical periods and communicates findings effectively.
• Shows ability to place individual research alongside the work of previous scholars.

Transferable skills

• Works productively with others 
• Communicates effectively in writing 
• Communicates effectively by oral presentation 
• Retrieves information from a range of written and electronic sources and present the results in a clear and accurate fashion

Conveners

• Dr Christopher Collins