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Anglo-Irish Writing from Swift to Shaw

Class at Faculty of Arts |
AAALC001AE

Annotation

Thank you for your interest in this MA seminar. For autumn/winter 2024/5 it is totally full. No more places will be available.

N.B.:

THIS CODE IS SPECIFICALLY FOR ERASMUS STUDENTS who need a grade for this course.

The course is only open to DALC incoming Erasmus students. Please note: priority goes to DALC MA students who need the credits to graduate, others may join if there is space.

Please note: students must enrol in the course by week two of the semester. Students attempting to enrol on week 3 or later will not be accepted.

DESCRIPTION:

This course is primarily an MA course, it is offered every winter semester and is a core requirement for studies specialising in Irish Studies. If MA places are not filled, BA students in year 3 of study (as elective/optional course). Erasmus students please note that this course requires advanced fluency in English: reading and writing.

The course will draw upon the rich tradition of Anglo-Irish writing, focusing on a variety of writers primarily from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In particular we will examine writers who have worked with humour and horror, in comic and gothic genres. One of the aims of this course is to investigate the subversive potential of the genres these writers used. Until recently many of these authors were considered as part of an English literary tradition, however we will be exploring the potential for doubleness in their work and identities as Anglo and Irish.

SCHEDULE:

Week 1 (1.10) Introduction: Historical and cultural contexts

Week 2 (8.10) Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels (1726)

Week 3 (15.10) Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels (1726)

Week 4 (22.10) Pamphlet: A Modest Proposal (1729), Edmund Burke Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) (Please read the marked extracts in the text posted on Moodle)

Week 5 (29.10) Maria Edgeworth Castle Rackrent (1800)

Week 6 (5.11) Dion Boucicault The Shaughraun (1874)

Week 7 (12.11) J. Sheridan LeFanu Selected stories: “Green Tea” (1872), “Carmilla” (1871)

Week 8 (19.11) Humanities week no classes

Week 9 (26.11) Bram Stoker Dracula (1897)

Week 10 (3.12) Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), selected essays: “The Critic as Artist”, “The Decay of Lying” (check Moodle for final selection)

Week 11 (10.12) G.B. Shaw John Bull’s Other Island (1904)

Week 12 (17.12) Conclusion

ESSAY PROPOSALS DUE by 17 December at 18.00

Week 13 (7.1) Reserve / consultations