Modern Irish Literature I: Tradition and Innovation - AAALC002A

• Title: Modern Irish Literature I: Tradition and Innovation
• Guaranteed by: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2023
• Semester: winter
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:0/2, C [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Mgr. Radvan Markus, Ph.D.
• Class: Exchange - 09.2 General and Comparative Literature
• Is co-requisite for: AAALC002B
• Is interchangeable with: AAA500738

Annotation

Last update: Mgr. Radvan Markus, Ph.D. (08.09.2022)

The seminar focuses on the dynamics between tradition and innovation in Irish literature since the ‘revivals’ at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Due attention will be given to the phenomenon of modernism (defined very broadly) as an approach to tradition that often yields innovative results. The course discusses both English-language classics and relatively less known authors in the Irish language, paying attention to the interactions between the two literary cultures. Knowledge of the Irish language is welcome, but not necessary, as the relevant texts will be made available in English translation.

SCHEDULE
Week 1 (4/10) Introduction, Irish Literary Revival
Week 2 (11/10) Irish Literary Revival
Read: J. M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World, The Shadow of the Glen
Week 3 (18/10) Gaelic Revival
Read: Pádraic Ó Conaire, Deoraíocht / Exile
Week 4 (25/10) James Joyce & Tradition
Read: James Joyce, “Cyclops,” Ulysses
Week 5 (1/11) Irish-language Autobiographies
Read: Tomás Ó Criomhthain, An tOileánach / The Islander (selection)
Seosamh Mac Grianna, Mo Bhealach Féin / My Own Journey (chapters 1, 2, 12)
Week 6 (8/11) Flann O’Brien’s An Béal Bocht
Read: Flann O’Brien, An Béal Bocht / The Poor Mouth
Week 7 (15/11) Tradition and Innovation in Irish Music
Read: Seán Ó Riada, Our Musical Heritage (selection)
Week 8 (22/11) Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s Cré na Cille
Read: Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Cré na Cille / Graveyard Clay (at least the first three interludes)
Week 9 (29/11) Máirtín Ó Cadhain & Samuel Beckett
Read: Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
Week 10 (6/12) Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
Read: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, “Cuimhne an Uisce” (A Recovered Memory of Water), “An Mhurúch agus Focail Áirithe” (The Mermaid and Certain Words), “Ceist na Teangan” (The Language Question); “Oileán” (Island); “Dubh” (Black)
Week 11 (13/12) Guest lecture
Seán Hewitt: Mysticism, the Occult, and Synge's The Aran Islands
Read: J.M. Synge, The Aran Islands
Week 12 (20/12) Contemporary Approaches
Read: Doireann Ní Ghríofa, A Ghost in the Throat
Week 13 (3/1) On reserve


CREDIT REQUIREMENTS
1. Regular attendance and active participation in debates (based on the assigned reading). A maximum of 2 unexplained absences is allowed.
2. Submission of draft answers to the assigned questions on a week-to-week basis. These may have the form of notes or a short text, the recommended length is about 300 words. Please send them to [e-mail] by 9:00 on the day of the given class.
3. A final essay (2500-3 000 words), submitted by e-mail in MS Word format (or compatible). Deadline for essays: 31 January.
Students wishing to be awarded an additional exam grade (písemná práce) in the course are required to submit, instead of the essay, a graded research paper (min. 4500-5000 words).
Essay topics must be discussed with the instructor in advance.

PLEASE NOTE: Essays must include full bibliographical references and footnotes for all works cited or paraphrased (in accordance with the MLA style – consult “essay guidelines” on the department website). Students are advised not to use internet sources in place of adequately researching texts available in print. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in a fail grade.

Literature

Last update: Mgr. Radvan Markus, Ph.D. (08.09.2022)

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY (in English)

note: selected critical texts are available on moodle under the specific topics (optional critical texts)

 

Attridge, Derek. The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004.

Castle, Gregory and Patrick Bixby, eds. A History of Irish Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2019.

Eastlake, John. “Orality and Agency: Reading an Irish Autobiography from the Great Blasket Island.” Oral Tradition 24/1 (2009): 125-41.

Eliot, T. S. “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” The Sacred Wood. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1921.

Harte, Liam, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Fiction. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020.

Hobsbawm, Eric and Terence Ranger. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.

Hopper, Keith. Flann O’Brien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-Modernist. Cork: Cork University Press, 2009.

Kelleher, Margaret and Philip O’Leary, eds. The Cambridge History of Irish Literature, Vol. 2, 1890-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Kiberd, Declan. Synge and the Irish Language. London: Macmillan,1993.

Kiberd, Declan. Inventing Ireland: the literature of the modern nation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Kiberd, Declan. Irish Classics. London: Granta Books, 2001.

Mathews, P. J.. The Cambridge Companion to J. M. Synge. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009.

O’Leary, Philip. Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State, 1922-1939. University Park: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2004.

O’Leary, Philip. Irish interior: keeping faith with the past in Gaelic prose, 1940-1951. Dublin : University College Dublin Press, 2010.

O’Leary, Philip. Prose Literature of the Gaelic Revival, 1881-1921: Ideology and Innovation. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1994.

O’Leary, Philip. Writing beyond the revival: facing the future in Gaelic prose, 1940-1951. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2011.

Pilný, Ondřej. Irony and Identity in Modern Irish Drama. Praha: Litteraria Pragensia, 2006.

Tymoczko, Maria. The Irish Ulysses. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

White, Harry. The Keeper’s Recital: Music and Cultural History in Ireland, 1770-1970. Cork: Cork UP, 1998. 

 

 

 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY IN IRISH (for those proficient in the language)

 

de Paor, Pádraig. Tionscnamh filíochta Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar 1997.

Denvir, Gearóid. Cadhan Aonair: Saothar Liteartha Mháirtín Uí Chadhain. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar, 1987.

Nic Eoin, Máirín. Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, Beatha agus Saothar. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar, 1988.

Nic Eoin, Máirín. Trén bhFearann Breac: An Díláithriú Cultúir agus Nualitríocht na Gaeilge. Baile Átha Cliath: Cois Life, 2005.

Ní Chionnaith, Eibhlín. Pádraic Ó Conaire. Scéal a Bheatha. Indreabhán: Cló Iar-Chonnachta, 1995.

Ní Dhonnchadha, Aisling. An Gearrscéal sa Ghaeilge: 1898-1940. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar, 1981.

Ní Fhrighil, Rióna. Briathra, béithe agus banfhilí: filíocht Eavan Boland agus Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar, 2008.

Ó Cadhain, Máirtín. Páipéir Bhána agus Páipéir Bhreaca. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar, 1969.

Ó Conaire, Breandán. Myles na Gaeilge: Lámhleabhar ar shaothar Gaeilge Bhrian Ó Nualláin. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar, 1986.

Titley, Alan. An tÚrscéal Gaeilge. Dublin: An Clóchomhar, 1991.

 

Teaching methods

Last update: Mgr. Helena Znojemská, Ph.D. (23.06.2013)

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