Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This module asks students to analyse the representation of Ireland in the Irish and British literary traditions. The module focuses on the early modern period as the point of origin for modern imaginings of Ireland in the English language. We look at the presence of Ireland and Irishness in works from writers such as Shakespeare, Spenser or Swift but we also look at other kinds of writing including the 1641 Depositions and memoirs and poetry from writers such as Laetitia Pilkington and Peg Plunkett. The later part of the module will draw on work from all the communities on the island of Ireland, from a range of literary and non-literary genres including drama, poetry, prose, folklore and ballds and will explore the enduring influence of issues of nation, language and identity for Irish writing. Material for this part of the course will be drawn from writers such as Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland, Brian Friel, Norah Hoult, Elizabeth Bowen and John McGahern and film-makers such as Tomm Moore.

Outline Of Syllabus

1. What is a nation? Identity, Nation and imagined commmunity
2. Writing early modern Ireland in English: The stage and the View.
3. The News from Ireland: Eye-witness testimony, trauma and atrocity in the 1641 rebellion.
4. A Modest Proposal: Ireland's cannibals.
5. Murder ballads from Victorian Ireland
6. The Big House: Land, estate and identity in nationalist Ireland
7. The History of Violence: Seamus Heaney's North
8. Recovering and Writing Irishwomen's experience: Eavan Boland and Norah Hoult
9. The early modern past in the present: Tomm Moore's Wolfwalker.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

1. An in-depth knowledge of some of the literature written in or about Ireland in the early modern and modern periods.
2. An in-depth knowledge of some of the key literary criticism and historiographical work in Irish studies.
3. An in-depth understanding of the main frameworks and concepts used to interpret literature from or about nation, colony and empire.

Intended Skill Outcomes

1. assembling and documenting reading appropriate to a topic
2. independent- and group-working
3. seeing a self-directed project through to completion
4. using digital platforms for learning and communication

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures will introduce the key concepts and historiography, essential context and textual analysis. Seminars will be scaffolded by student-led study groups and by open-ended questions on discusssion boards where students can test out initial ideas with their peers. Seminars will enable group analysis and interaction and provide space for conclusions/analysis. Asssessment work will be supproted by a specific assessment session and by one-to-one meetings.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Report 1 asks students to outline their final portfolio assessment allowing for feedback on the final assessment, drections for further reading and suggestions for improvement.

Students select one of these options for their final portfolio assessment. The options are:
1. To write a critical analysis based on a self-created question.
2. To create an online exhibition using Shorthand.
3. To deliver or record themselves delivering a conference using visual and/or other aides and RECAP.
4. A creative response to a text or concept encountered on the module.

General Notes

N/A