Department of English

This course will focus on some of the most powerful and exciting moments in Irish literature and film in the twentieth century. Passion for the land, the pain and ambivalence of colonialism, domestic abuse, unemployment, music, mythology, political upheaval and the Troubles in Northern Ireland -- all these will be the topics of our weekly discussions. We will view a film every other week; in alternating weeks we will read one novel, play or collection of poems. The literature and films will be treated as thematic pairs. Among these pairings are: W. B. Yeats, Cathleen Ni Houlihan and Jim Sheridan, The Field; Sean O'Casey, Juno and the Paycock and Terry George, Some Mother's Son; Oscar Wilde, Salome and Suri Krishnamma, A Man of No Importance; Edna O'Brien, House of Splendid Isolation and Pat O'Connor, Cal; Paddy Clarke, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors and Thaddeus O'Sullivan, December Bride. We will also read fiction and poetry by James Joyce and Seamus Heaney. Requirements are one in-class oral presentation, one midterm paper, and one final seminar paper.