Twentieth-Century Irish Fiction
This section of the course will look at James Joyce's collection of short stories Dubliners. Although Joyce is revered as one of the greatest writers of the modern era, students are sometimes reluctant to read his work because of its reputed difficulty. This class will make Joyce's innovative and compelling work accessible and enjoyable. We will also read Elizabeth Bowen's novel The Last September, a very stylish novel that examines the Anglo-Irish way of life in the early years of the twentieth century. Click to watch film on Elizabeth Bowen.
Twentieth-Century Irish Poetry
In this section, students will read the poetry of William Butler Yeats. Beginning with his early work in the Irish Literary Revival, students will examine Yeats’ many reinventions of himself up to his death in 1939.
Irish Film
This section offers an intensive introductory course to Irish cinema and will examine films from the early days of film-making in Ireland to more recent examples from directors such as Neil Jordan, Pat Murphy and Thaddeus O’Sullivan. The relationship of these films to Irish society and culture, as well as issues such as the representation of gender, national identity, and financing, will be examined.
Field-Trips
Field-trips are designed to complement the central texts on the course, and as an introduction to the Irish landscape which plays such a major role in Irish literature. Day-trips include a visit to the ruins of Bowen’s Court in north Cork, the setting of Elizabeth Bowen’s novel The Last September. Students will also visit Dublin for some days to walk in the footsteps of Joyce's "Dubliners", and recreate the events of stories almost 100 years after Joyce imagined them. This visit to the city where Joyce set Ulysses will help to bring the setting and the novel to life. A visit to the Abbey Theatre, which W.B. Yeats helped found, and the National Gallery, will also form part of this trip.
