Course Resources Archive

This module explores a range of Modern Irish writing from 1800 to the present, with reference to a range of genres.

This module covers novels, poetry, drama, by men and women from different religious backgrounds and geographical regions, within and outside Ireland. It takes as its focus the use of language to explore issues of status, agency and power, affective, rhetorical and so forth. The syllabus may include the following:

The National Tale: Maria Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent

Romanticism: Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies

The Irish Literary Revival: W. B. Yeats’ poetry

Irish Modernism: James Joyce, either Portrait of the Artist or Dubliners

Women’s Writing: Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September and Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls

Northern Irish Writing: Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, and others.

Brian Friel’s Translations

The Irish Diaspora: Maeve Brennan’s pieces for the New Yorker. 

Contemporary Irish novel: Joseph O’Connor’s  Star of the Sea

A student passing this module should be able to:

1.demonstrate an advanced capacity to read texts closely in relation to critical debate and cultural context/s;

2.display confidence and acumen in analysing literary texts;

3.communicate ideas with sophistication, confidence and self-reflection;

4.use bibliographic and research skills appropriate to Level 6.

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.