English 622-001
Seminar in Irish Literature: Writers after Yeats & Joyce
Instr: Lanters, Josepha
Office: CRT 489; 229-5595
e-mail: lanters@uwm.edu
Office hours:
Course Information: T&R; 11:00am-12:15pm; BOL 281
Course Description
By the early 1940s, both W.B. Yeats and James Joyce were dead in body as well as in spirit. There were no Irish writers of the same caliber immediately to take their place. Ireland's neutrality during World War II isolated it from the rest of the world and created a claustrophobic and closed-minded atmosphere. For two decades thereafter, literary expression did not fare well in Ireland. The newly independent nation had not yet gained self-confidence, its leaders were defensive, and censorship was prevalent. Yeats' Abbey Theatre languished under the conservative and unimaginative management of Earnest Blythe. The 1960s, however, initiated a period of rapid social and economic change. That transition is also reflected in Irish writing of the period. This course will focus mainly on Irish writing since 1960, and will pay special attention to the ways in which changes in Irish society are reflected in the literature of the period. Assessment will be based on class participation (10%), a class presentation (20%), and two papers (35% each).
Books:
Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds
John McGahern, Amongst Women
Brian Friel, Selected Plays
Tom Murphy, Plays 2
Edna O'Brien, The Country Girls
Patrick McCabe, The Butcher Boy
Bernard McLaverty, Cal
Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays
Marina Carr, Plays 1
Patrick Crotty, Modern Irish Poetry: An Anthology
Course Packet
