Syllabus
NOTE: For an updated syllabuse and details go to Moodle.
Feb 20 - NO CLASS. I will try to make up for that session at the end of the semester.
Feb 27 INTRODUCTION
March 6 and 13 NATION, WOMAN, SHIP AND CARMocking Traditional Tropes
Reading for March 6
PRIMARY TEXTSEavan Boland, "Mise Eire,"Vona Groarke, "The Imperial Measure"Patrick Pearse, "Fornocht do chonac thú", "Mise Éire", "Mother"Aodhagán Ó Rathaille, "Gile na Gile"SECONDARY SOURCESEavan Boland, "In Search of a Nation", Object Lessons (Manchester: Carcanet, 2006), 52-71.Máirín Nic Eoin, "Sovereignty and Politics, c. 1300-1900", in Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Irish Women’s Writings and Traditions, Vol. 4, eds. Angela Bourke et al. (Cork: Cork University Press, 2002), 275. (In the department library or on: http://books.google.cz/books?id=V01-76iQ48gC&pg=PA273&dq=Nic+Eoin+Sovereignty&hl=cs&sa=X&ei=-J_7Uv3tBsXNtAbimIHAAw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Nic%20Eoin%20Sovereignty&f=false )
Reading for March 13
PRIMARY TEXTSNuala Ní Dhomhnaill, "Caitlín", "Masculus Giganticus Hibernicus"Máirtín Ó Direáin, "Éire ina bhfuil Romhainn"Paul Muldoon, "Aisling"Eavan Boland, "Tirade for the Epic Muse"
SECONDARY SOURCESDavid Wheatley, "Changing the Story: Eavan Boland and Literary History", The Irish Review 31 (Spring/Summer 2004): 104-120.Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, "Introduction: Contemporary Poetry", in Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Irish Women’s Writings and Tradition. Vol. 4., 1290-97.Patricia Coughlan, "‘Bog Queens’: The Representations of Women in the Poetry of John Montague and Seamus Heaney", in Theorizing Ireland, ed. Claire Connolly (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 41-60.
NOTE: The reading for March 6 and 13 to be confirmed and uploaded by February 27. The underlined essays are those assigned for presentation.
March 20 and 27 THE RAGS OF LANGUAGETechniques of Silence and Obliquity
Reading for March 20 and 27
PRIMARY TEXTSEiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, "Gloss/Clós/Glass", "The Last Glimpse of Erin", "Passing Over in Silence" Vona Groarke, "An Teach Tuí", "White Noise", "Away"Medbh McGuckian, "Venus and the Rain", "Aviary", "The Soil Map"
SECONDARY SOURCESJustin Quinn, "Feminism and Irish Poetry", The Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry, 1800-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 161-74.Guinn Batten, "Boland, McGuckian, Ní Chuilleanáin and the Body of the Nation", in The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry, ed. Matthew Campbell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 169-88.
Apr 3 and 10 POETRY IN IRISH & THE POLITICS OF TRANSLATIONNuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Biddy Jenkinson, Aifric Mac Aodha
Reading for April 3 and 10
SECONDARY SOURCES
Frank Sewell, "Between Two Languages: Poetry in Irish, English and Irish English", Cambridge Companion to Irish Poetry, ed. Matthew Campbell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) 149-68.Brian Ó Conchubhair, "The Right of Cows and the Rite of Copy; an Overview of Translation from Irish to English", Éire-Ireland 35.1/2 (2000): 92-111.Biddy Jenkinson, "A Letter to an Editor", Irish University Review 21.1 (Spring/Summer 1991): 27-34.Biddy Jenkinson, "Máire Mhac an tSaoi: The Clerisy and the Folk (P.I.R. 24): A Reply", Poetry Ireland Review 25 (Spring 1989): 80.Aifric Mac Aodha, "A Talkative Corpse: The Joys of Writing Poetry in Irish", Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art (25 October 2011). http://columbiajournal.org/902Justin Quinn, "Incoming: Irish Poetry and Translation", in The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry, eds. Fran Brearton and Alan Gillis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland: Translation, Languages, Cultures (Cork: Cork University Press, 1996).
Apr 17 and 24THE NEW AND THE VERY NEWEST Vona Groarke, Caitríona O’Reilly, Sinéad Morrissey, Ailbhe Darcy
Reading for April 17 and 24
SECONDARY SOURCESVona Groarke, "Editorial", Verse 16.2 (1999): 7-8.Justin Quinn, "The Irish Efflorescence", Poetry Review 91.4 (2001/2): 4-8.
May 15 TRITE BUT TENACIOUSCurrent Debates and State of Affairs
Reading for May 15
SECONDARY SOURCESPatricia Coughlan, "‘The Whole Strange Growth’: Heaney, Orpheus and Women" in Irish Feminisms: Special Issue of Th
Annotation
OBJECTIVES
Well into the latter half of the last century, women in Ireland (and elsewhere) were considered "not poets, but poetry". Yet, the unprecedented upsurge of poetry by women from the mid 1970s onwards secured women an undisputed place in the centre of the contemporary scene, and brought about significant changes in Irish poetry writing and criticism.
We will look into the historical circumstances that preceded and occasioned those changes, unparalleled in many cultures, including the Czech milieu. Combining textual analysis with socio-cultural and theoretical background, we will consider the merits as well as the limits of literary feminism and feminist theory, and trace the recent shift in Irish poetry from feminism to post-feminism. The core of our approach will be in the close reading and interpretation of particular poems, in both English and Irish (the latter through existing translations; no knowledge of the Irish language is required). Poetry by some of the foremost poets (both female and male) in Ireland today will be examined through the theoretical discourses of various recent trends in Irish literary criticism, including post-colonial theory and post-nationalist revisionism.
ASSESSMENT
Regular attendance, active participation in the seminar based on the reading of assigned texts, and an essay (of 2500-3000 words) on one of the proposed topics, or a related topic of one’s own choice (to be consulted with the instructor).