Senior Seminar: Twentieth-Century Irish Literature ENGLIT 1912 16591 TTH 11:00-12:20 Biddle 252 Dr. Ann Rea Spring 2018 Syllabus and Course Description anr12@pitt.edu Office hours: MW 2:00-3:00 and TTH 12:30-2:00 and by appointment Office Biddle 223C Phone ext. 7166 This semester we will explore a century of Irish writing that helped to define and create Ireland as independent nation, and that exemplifies what literature can do to create culture, and not merely describe it. The wealth of Irish writing in this century is so great that one semester only gives us a chance to sample its major writers. In his elegy for the Irish poet W. B. Yeats, W. H. Auden, the English poet famously said, poetry makes nothing happen. Yet the plays and prose of J. M. Synge and Yeats s poems, plays and prose, as well as writing by many other Irish writers in the twentieth-century, explored the ideals behind the first British colony to obtain independence, discussed the form of leadership that the new country should have, and responded in a variety of ways to the Ireland that emerged, at times as exiles, and also as Irish residents who rejected the conservative nationalism of much of its first century. We will begin by considering not only the historical events of the early decades of the century, but also W. B. Yeats s efforts to influence the country s development. By sending J. M. Synge to write about the Aran Islands, and in his own plays and poetry, Yeats drew upon Irish myths and folklore in order to draw on a past that existed before English colonization, in order to create a new national identity. James Joyce s novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, was published in the midst of the political turmoil that led to Independence, but portrayed an artist (Joyce) who would choose exile abroad to escape the pressures of religion and the family, as well as the perpetual debate about Irish politics. Originating in a different stratum of Irish society, Elizabeth Bowen depicts the end of the pseudo-aristocratic rule of the Anglo- Irish, in a novel that focuses on the myths that allow her class to define themselves, and the coming of age of a young woman in the time of civil war. After an early career writing pseudonymous comical fiction about the Horse Protestants among whom she grew up, Molly Keane returned to writing about that class in 1981 in more complex fiction that examines her background and in particular its treatment of women, with more honesty. Playwright Brian Friel writes political plays describing communities in the north of Ireland, their attempts to define their rural culture and myths against the influences of
colonization. Seamus Heaney is one of the English language s major poets, and emerged from rural, provincial Northern Ireland, articulating an important sense of place and effectively asserting that poets can emerge from small places, and that the lives of ordinary people are the stuff of poetry. His poetry shows that poetic voice is inextricably linked with the place from which the poet originates, even as he transcends place and time in a kind of metaphysics. Eavan Boland returns many times to mythology, Greek and Irish, to write about twentieth-century life, often from a domestic perspective. In her prose and poetry she defines her relationship to a country that she had to leave when she was a child, but in which she later forged a women s poetic tradition. Seamus Deane, a literary critic and academic, wrote the novel Reading in the Dark, showing clear influences of Joyce s Portrait, that explores his family s history and involvement in the IRA, as a ghost story. The past haunts this family who are divided by the events in the past in ways that the young narrator seeks to understand. If Joyce s line from Portrait, History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake seems apt here, it is no coincidence! Assigned Texts: Richard Finneran (ed). The Yeats Reader, Scribner James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, (1916) Penguin J. M. Synge, Playboy of the Western World [first performed in 1907]and Other Plays, Oxford Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September, (1929) Penguin Molly Keane, Good Behaviour, (1981) Virago Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa, (1990) Farrar, Straus and Giroux Seamus Heaney, Selected Poems, 1988-2013, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Eavan Boland, New Collected Poems, W.W. Norton Seamus Deane, Reading in the Dark, (1996) Vintage The easiest way to get the correct editions is to shop at the bookstore where you will find new and used copies and also books that you can rent. You must own copies of the texts and should aim to mark them up and make them your own, lived-in copies. Please avoid Kindle or another e-reading devices because of the difficulty of effectively finding specific passages and marking them up. Please do not use your laptop in class. This class requires your active participation in a way that other classes may not, but we will have a small focused group for engaging conversation. You must prepare for class by reading thoughtfully. It is possible that you will read some poems that we will not manage to discuss in class, but your exposure to them will contribute to your understanding and you can always direct the discussion to what you have liked in the reading!
There will be regular unannounced reading quizzes which make an important contribution to your grade. Please make the effort to reflect on your part in class discussion. If you tend to talk a lot you might need to check that you do not dominate the discussion. If you are shy and tend to leave the talking to others you might need to push yourself to speak. It is extremely important that we behave respectfully towards others in the discussions. Class participation will contribute to your grade. Grades You will be required to complete two papers, the first 4-5 pages long, and the second, final research paper of 10 pages. In addition, throughout the semester, you will complete a reading journal which will be turned in weekly and graded. If you wish you can use this journal to explore ideas that interest you, but if you prefer I will be willing to make suggestions for your focus; however, ideally the focus that you choose might help you to decide what your paper topics will be. In addition to these writing assignments, you will each choose two classes for which you will prepare questions and comments as discussion prompts for the whole class. You are encouraged to confer with me, by email or conversation, so I can guide you in developing the focus for these prompts, but again, I will help you to guide an exploration of your interests in the reading. Your grade for this class will break down as follows: Paper One 4-5 pages long 20% Paper Two 10 pages long 35% Reading Journals 20% Discussion Prompting Questions and Comments and Class Participation 25% Policies and Rules No texting in class. Give yourself the privilege of being fully present in class. Attendance is required. More than three absences and you risk having your grade lowered. If you need to schedule appointments make sure that they do not take place during class time. Be punctual at the beginning of class, and do not make plans to leave before class ends: to do otherwise will result in an absence being recorded. Plagiarism is an extremely serious offence and will not be excused. Be sure that you see the distinction between collaboration with and the kind of help with writing which involves someone else doing work for you. To present the
language or ideas of others as if they are your own is plagiarism and this applies as much to internet sources as to any others. If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you should contact Counselling Services, G10 Student Union, (814) 269-7119(voice)/(814) 269-7186 as early as possible in the term. The Office of Health & Wellness Services will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. Tuesday, 9 th January Introduction The Invention of Ireland Historical background to a century of upheaval. Thursday, 11 th January Read J. M. Synge, The Shadow of the Glen and Aidan Arrowsmith s Introduction to J. M. Synge s, The Complete Works of J. M. Synge (Courseweb). Tuesday, 16 th January Read J. M. Synge, Riders to the Sea and early poems by W. B. Yeats from The Yeats Reader: The Stolen Child, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, When You are Old, Who goes with Fergus? The Man who dreamed of Faeryland, To Ireland in the Coming Times, The Hosting of the Sidhe, The Song of Wandering Aengus, He wishes his Beloved were Dead, He wished for the Cloths of Heaven, Adam s Curse, and Red Hanrahan s Song about Ireland Thursday, 18 th January Read historical background in the Terence Brown excerpt on Courseweb. Read Yeats s September 1913, The Wild Swans at Coole, In Memory of Major Robert Gregory. Tuesday, 23 rd January Read Yeats s Easter 1916, On a Political Prisoner, The Second Coming, A Prayer for my Daughter, Sailing to Byzantium, Meditations in Time of Civil War, Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen, Leda and the Swan, Among School Children, All Souls Night, In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz, Coole Park, 1929, and Lapis Lazuli. Thursday, 25 th January Read Yeats s The Reform of the Theatre, the excerpts from A Vision, and excerpts from Anima Mundi 408-11. Read Yeats s play, Cathleen Ni Houlihan
Tuesday, 30 th January Read James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to the end of Chapter II, page 108. Thursday, 1 st February Read Chapter III of Joyce s, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, page 158. Tuesday, 6 th February Read Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to page 235. Thursday, 8 th February Finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Tuesday, 13 th February Read Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September, to the end of Part One, Chapter 7. Thursday, 15th February Read Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September, to the end of Part Two Chapter Three. Tuesday, 20 th February Read Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September, to the end of Part Three, Chapter Three. Thursday, 22 nd February Finish The Last September Tuesday, 27 th February Paper 1 due. Read Molly Keane, Good Behaviour, to the end of Chapter 18. Thursday, 1 st March Finish Good Behaviour Tuesday, 6 th March and Thursday, 8 th March No Classes Spring Break Tuesday, 13 th March Seamus Heaney early poems: Digging, Blackberry-Picking, Follower, Mid- Term Break, Personal Helicon, The Forge, Thatcher, Undine, The Wide s Tale, Bogland, Toome, The Other Side, The Tollund Man, Fireside, England s Difficulty, Funeral Rites, Bone Dreams, Punishment, Act of Union, The Ministry of Fear, Fosterage, Casualty, The Railway Children, Clearances, Courseweb
Thursday, 15 th March Seamus Heaney, The Golden Bough, Markings, Seeing Things, Field of Vision, A Pillowed Head, Wheels within Wheels, Lightenings, Settings, Crossings, Two Lorries, St Kevin and the Blackbird, The Swing. Tuesday, 20 th March Seamus Heaney, excerpt from The Redress of Poetry (Courseweb), and poems from The Human Chain, pages 173-218 in Selected Poems. Thursday, 22 nd March Eavan Boland, The Poets, A Cynic at Kilmainham Gaol, Yeats in Civil War, Suburban Woman, Ode to Suburbia, Anorexic, Domestic Interior, Night Feed, Energies, Hymn, Partings, Endings, Fruit on a Straight-Sided Tray, Monotony, The Muse Mother, A Ballad of Home, Patchwork, or the Poet s Craft. Tuesday, 27 th March Eavan Boland, Degas s Laundresses, Woman in Kitchen, The Woman Changes her Skin, The Woman Changes Herself into a Fish, Listen: This is the Noise of Myth, An Irish Childhood in England: 1951, The Glass King, In Exile, Outside History, That the Science of Cartography is Limited, The Death of Reason, The Doll s Museum in Dublin, Writing in a Time of Violence, The Pomegranate, The Mother Tongue, The Necessity for Irony. Thursday, 29 th March Excerpt from Object Lessons Tuesday, 3 rd April Read Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa Thursday, 5 th April Tuesday, 10 th April Thursday, 12 th April Tuesday, 17 th April Thursday, 19 th April - In-Class presentations about research topic
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