ENGLISH 622
Seminar in Irish Literature: Irish Women Writers
Course Description
For a small nation that only achieved independence in 1922, Ireland has produced more than its share of world-class writers: we may immediately think of James Joyce, as well as the four Nobel laureates, G.B. Shaw, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney. Irish women writers have gained less visibility: until recently, for example, a poster featuring ‘Irish Writers’ popular with visitors to Ireland included the images of twelve men and not a single woman. For much of the twentieth century, women writers faced an uphill battle to have their work published, their plays produced, and their artistic efforts publicly recognized. The position of women in Ireland in general was circumscribed by the 1937 Constitution, which notoriously defined the role of women as mothers and their place as ‘in the home’, and by the dominance in everyday life of the Catholic church, which was granted a privileged position in the same Constitution. In this class, we will read prose fiction, poetry, and drama by female Irish writers, written between the early 20th century and the present day, in which themes and subjects that are of particular concern to women are addressed.
Assessment
Midterm paper, final paper, class participation and attendance.
Reading List
Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September, Anchor Books, ISBN 0385720149
Patricia Burke Brogan, Eclipsed, Wordsonthestreet (2008), ISBN 0955260442
Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats, Dramatists Play Service, ISBN 9780822218562
Teresa Deevy Reclaimed, ed. Jonathan Bank et al, Mint Theater Company (2011), ISBN 9780971826243
Sinead Gleeson, The Long Gaze Back, New Island Books (2015), ISBN 1848405480
Edna O’Brien, A Pagan Place, Mariner, ISBN 0618126902
The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry, Wake Forest Press, 2nd Ed., ISBN 1930630581
Provisional Syllabus
September 7:Introduction
September 14:Lady Gregory (TBA), Mary Manning, Youth’s the Season! (Reader)
September 28:Short stories (Gleeson)
October 5:Teresa Deevy, Katie Roche and Wife to James Whelan
October 12:Poetry (Wake Forest)
October 19:Edna O’Brien, A Pagan Place (plus background reading)
October 26:Short stories (Gleeson)
November 2:Patricia Burke Brogan, Eclipsed (plus background reading)
November 9:Poetry (Wake Forest)
November 16:Short stories (Gleeson)
November 30:Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats (plus background reading)
December 7:Poetry (Wake Forest)
December 14:Louise Lowe/ANU, The Monto Cycle (video plus background reading)