Syllabus
English 7405X: Inventing Ireland Spring 2012
Instructor: Professor P. Laurence
E-mail: pat.laurence@gmail.com
Class blog: www.patricialaurence.com, See Teaching, top Menu, Irish Literature Blog
Office: #3415B, X5216
Schedule of Reading
Feb. 1: Deconstructing the Polarities in Irish Culture and Politics
Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (passages)
Feb. 8: Lyricism and Realities: W.B. Yeats & Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
Yeats list of poems, separate sheet; Swift on-line
(http://www.grundskyld.dk/2-modest.html)
Feb. 15: Silence, Exile and Cunning: James Joyce, Ulysses*
Read carefully 1.Telemachus, 2.Nestor, 3.Proteus (pp.1-44) using Groden’s notes
Feb. 22: Joyce
Read 4.Calypso, 5.Lotus Eaters, 7.Aeolus (pp.58-123)
Skim Hades
Feb. 29: Joyce
Skim Laestrygonians-Cyclops, Oxen of the Sun: read Groden plot summaries;
Read 9. Scylla & Carybdis, 11. Sirens, 13.Nausica (pp.210-284)
March 7: Joyce
Skim Eumaeus, Ithaca
Read 15. Circe (skim), 18. Penelope
March 14: The Troubles:
Deane, Reading in the Dark, pp.3-119 (up to Bishop, 1952)
March 21: Deane, pp. 120-246.
March 28: Dislocations
Bowen, The House in Paris, Part I, pp.3-64,
Short Paper (5-7 pp.) due
April 4: Bowen, Parts 2&3, pp. 65-269.
April 6-14: Spring break
April 18: Nothing is certain…Nothing to be done…
Beckett: Waiting for Godot (watch the play on You Tube, about 50 minutes-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIc0sr0oXH4&feature=related
April 25: Granta Short Stories
Nuns and Priests: Edna O’Brien; Michael McLaverty “Road to the Shore”; Colm Toibin
Women: Roddy Doyle, O’Connor, Maeve Brennan, Keegan
May 2: Granta Short Stories
John Banville; Eugene McCabe; Ann Devlin (Belfast), McGahern
Love, Betrayal: Sean O’Faolin, William Trevor
May 9: Post-Modern Mysteries
Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman, pp.3-92.
Final paper due, 15 pp.
May 16: O’Brien, pp. 92-200.
*See Joyce on-line resources (separate page), Michael Groden:
Ideal for readers approaching James Joyce’s masterwork for the first time, this website works through Ulysses (using the Gabler edition) chapter by chapter, addressing difficulties and discovering what makes the novel still seem new. It provides plot summaries, schemas, notes, maps.
NOTES ON ULYSSES: 1. Telemachus – 2. Nestor – 3. Proteus – 4. Calypso – 5. Lotus Eaters – 6. Hades – 7. Aeolus – 8. Lestrygonians – 9. Scylla and Charybdis – 10. Wandering Rocks – 11. Sirens – 12. Cyclops – 13. Nausicaa – 14. Oxen of the Sun – 15. Circe – 16. Eumaeus – 17. Ithaca – 18. Penelope
Course requirements:
Short Paper (about 5-7 pp.); Longer Paper built upon the shorter (15 pp.)
Genetic and post-colonial criticism encouraged. Genetic criticism focuses upon the process by which the final printed text came to be. The “avant-text” can be examined by viewing the writer’s notes about the text, sketches, drafts, mss., letters.
Post-colonial criticism concerned with literature by those who colonize or those who were/are colonized focuses upon issues of power, economics, politics, religion and culture in its analysis.
Short oral report, Final Exam
Grades: Short paper, 15%; oral report, class participation 10%; Longer paper, 50%;
Final Exam, 25%.
Occasional in-class written responses to works.
Absences: no more than two