Twentieth Century British and Irish Studies
Term 1
MWF, 2:00-3:00 p.m.
Three 20th century Irish writers will be the focus of this course, two of whom won the Noble Prize. The impact of Ireland on the writers, only one of whom resided in the country, will be discussed with readings in drama, poetry and fiction. Core texts will include Murphy, Endgame and Waiting for Godot by Beckett, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses by Joyce and selected poems by Yeats from The Tower, 1928 and The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. Politics, culture and England will compete with language, history and reception theory.
Also at issue will be how these three Irish writers redefined 20th century Modernism but left the concept of Irish Modernism in limbo. The two Joyces dramatize the situation. One Joyce is the internationalist, the deracinated modernist who was considered to have become European and modern by transcending his Irishness. The other is the Irish Joyce who has more recently emerged from the convergence of post-colonial and Irish studies. While a canon of Irish Modernism exists, its central importance to international literary developments draws it away from the Irish context. This contested condition will be a major focus of the course.
