Undergraduate Course: Celtic Revivals: Writing on the Periphery,1890-1939 (ENLI10113)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course explores key works from the Irish Literary Renaissance, otherwise known as the Irish Cultural Revival, or the Celtic Revival: an extraordinary period of literary endeavour during a time of intense cultural and political transformation. The texts on the course are key works of Irish literature, of literary modernism, and would also come to be hugely influential on post-colonial writing through the rest of the twentieth century. We will explore how the texts shaped and contested ideas of identity and history; how Ireland¿s push for freedom from English rule coincided with the context of modernity; and we will close-read our primary texts, discussing how they challenge conventional notions of style, form and genre, asking how their formal innovations related to historical and political change. |
| Course description |
You will be asked to discuss and analyse set texts in relation to key themes regarding Irish cultural contexts and literary styles.
Syllabus
Celticism, Romanticism, Nationalism and Modernity:
Matthew Arnold and W. B. Yeats
The Heroic Ideal:
W. B. Yeats and J. M. Synge
Joyce and the Anti-Heroic:
Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Nationalism, Colonialism and Cosmopolitanism:
James Joyce, Ulysses
Gender, Sex and the City:
James Joyce, Ulysses
Gender and the Big House:
Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September
Gender, Catholicism and Nationalism:
Kate O¿Brien, The Ante-Room
The Filthy Modern Tide:
Late W. B. Yeats
From Nationalism to Regionalism:
Patrick Kavanagh
The course is assessed by two essays, one to be completed by Week 9 of the course and one to be written during the exam period, and an assessment of students' participation in class and their autonomous learning groups. Written feedback will be provided on each element of assessment.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | A MINIMUM of three college/university level literature courses at grade B or above (should include no more than one introductory level literature course). Related courses such as civilisation or creative writing are not considered for admissions to this course.
Applicants should also note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission. In making admissions decisions preference will be given to students who achieve above the minimum requirement with the typical visiting student admitted to this course having three to four literature classes at grade A.
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2020/21, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 15 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Other Study Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
one hour autonomous learning group
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Standard model:
2500 word coursework essay (40%) submitted mid-semester
+ 3000 word final essay submitted at end of semester / in exam period (60%).
OR: Alternative model: alternative coursework assessment (40%)
+ 3000 word final essay submitted at end of semester / in exam period (60%) |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- By the end of the course students should be able to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of key texts of modern Irish literature.
- Students should also be able to demonstrate understanding of the major critical debates produced by modern Irish literature.
- Students should be able to demonstrate understanding of the cultural context of modern Irish literature.
- Students should be able to undertake independent critical analysis of modern Irish literature.
- Students should be able to orally present the results of research undertaken individually and as part of a small group, respond judiciously to such research undertaken by others, and critically evaluate the importance of such material for an understanding of the chief themes of the course.
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Reading List
Primary Texts
¿ Bowen, Elizabeth. The Last September. New ed. London: Vintage, 1998.
¿ Joyce, James, Dubliners. London: Penguin, 2000.
¿ Joyce, James, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. London: Penguin, 2003.
¿ Joyce, James, Ulysses. London: Penguin, 2000.
¿ Kavanagh, Patrick. Collected Poems. London: Penguin, 2005.
¿ O¿Brien, Kate. The Ante-Room. London: Virago, 2006.
¿ Synge, J. M. The Playboy of the Western World and Other Plays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
¿ Yeats, W. B. The Major Works. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Indicative Secondary Reading
¿ Brown, Terence. Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922-1985. Fontana, 1985.
¿ Cairns, David, and Shaun Richards. Writing Ireland: Colonialism, Nationalism and Culture. Manchester UP, 1988.
¿ Cleary, Joe. Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Irish Modernism. Cambridge UP, 2014.
¿ Deane, Seamus. Celtic Revivals: Essays in Modern Irish Literature. Faber, 1985.
¿ Deane, Seamus. Strange Country: Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing Since 1790. Clarendon, 1997.
¿ Deane, Seamus. General ed. The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Vol. 1-3. Field Day, 1991.
¿ Gibbons, Luke. Transformations in Irish Culture. Cork UP and Field Day, 1996.
¿ Kelleher, Margaret, and Philip O¿Leary. Eds. The Cambridge History of Irish Literature, Volume 2 - 1890-2000. Cambridge UP, 2006.
¿ Kelly, Aaron. Twentieth-Century Irish Literature: A Reader¿s Guide to Essential Criticism. Palgrave, 2008.
¿ Kiberd, Declan. Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation. Cape, 1995.
¿ Kiberd, Declan and J. J. Matthews (eds.). Handbook of the Irish Revival: An Anthology of Irish Cultural and Political Writings 1891-1922. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2016.
¿ Lloyd, David. Anomalous States: Irish Writing and the Post-Colonial Moment. Lilliput, 1993.
¿ Longley, Edna, The Living Stream: Literature and Revisionism in Ireland. Bloodaxe, 1994.
¿ Watson, George. Irish Identity and the Literary Revival; Synge, Yeats, Joyce and O¿Casey. Catholic University of America Press, 1994.
¿ Wright, Judith. Ed. A Companion to Irish Literaure: Vol. 2. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
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Additional Information
| Course URL |
https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/undergraduate/current/honours |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Special Arrangements |
Numbers are limited and students taking degrees not involving English or Scottish literature need the written approval of the head of English Literature |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
2 hour(s) per week for 10 week(s): attendance for one hour a week at Autonomous Learning Group - at time to be arranged. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Alan Gillis
Tel: (0131 6)50 3050
Email: Alan.Gillis@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Sheila Strathdee
Tel: (0131 6)50 3619
Email: S.Strathdee@ed.ac.uk |
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