BA, LA: Admission to this seminar is possible only after successful attendance at an introduction to literary studies.
This course addresses the question of the Anglo-Irish gentry, of Irishness, and a specific literary national identity within the larger body of English-speaking literature in general. There is little doubt that Irish writers have contributed greatly to the canon of English literature, and that in turn British colonial and post-colonial dealings with Ireland have influenced Irish authors. We will be reading Anglo-Irish authors from the 18th to the 20th century (Edgeworth’s novel Castle Rackrent; Yeats’s play Cathleen ni Houlihan; and several poems or shorter prose pieces from an anthology of Irish writing) which in various forms reflect this interaction between Ireland and Britain. Additionally, the thematic unity of this course provides the opportunity of addressing and discussing the various demands different genres make with respect to their literary analysis.
Students are required to have read Edgeworth’s novel by the beginning of term; textual knowledge will be tested throughout the course. Qualifications are obtained by regular attendance, lively oral participation, one oral presentation (Referat) and an end-of-term Hausarbeit (Leistungsschein) or Essay (Teilnahmeschein). There is no Essay option for BA students.
Text:
Edgeworth, Maria. Castle Rackrent. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Regan, Stephan (ed.). Irish Writing: An Anthology of Irish Literature in English 1789 – 1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Suggested Reading:
Foster, John Wilson (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Irish Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Kelleher, Margaret and Philip O’Leary. The Cambridge History of Irish Literature, 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
