Department of English

This course will survey a range of twentieth-century Irish writing, from the Celtic Revival of the early 1900s to recent fiction, drama, and poetry.  We will track several key topics and themes over the semester, such as the relationships between art and violence, literature and nationalism, language and territory, sexuality and citizenship, and gender and tradition.  Readings and lectures will provide historical background and social contexts for the following main texts:  Bram Stoker's Dracula, W.B. Yeats's Selected Poems, J.M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World,  James Joyce's Dubliners, SeanO'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, selected poems of Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland, Brian Friel's Translations, Nuala Ní Dhomnaill's Pharaoh's Daughter (translated from the Irish), and Jamie O'Neill's At Swim, Two Boys.  Written requirements will include weekly quizzes, a 10-page critical essay, and two exams.