ENG 6850 Irish Literary Renaissance

This course provides an examination of literature written by Irish writers at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, with a focus on the complex relationships between political nationalism and culture in modern Ireland. Issues addressed include the relationship between politics and language, the role of English imperialism in forming Irish identities and the ways in which the Irish Literary Renaissance attempted to revise such definitions, the relationship between the Irish present and the Irish past, and the hot-button issue of religion. Selected texts by Irish writers who chose not to make “Irish” Ireland an overt subject of their work are also discussed.
Credits: 3.0