Requirements for the Minor

Irish Studies Courses -- Fall 2009

Eng 348WR: Contemporary Irish Poetry
Schuchard, TT 11:30-12:45, Max: 25

Content: This course is based upon a close critical reading and evaluation of poetry written by Irish poets in English during the past forty years and whose work is currently at the forefront of international poetic discourse. The course focuses on poets from Northern Ireland and the Republic, on Protestant and Catholic, on urban working class poets and feminist poets, all in the context of the Irish literary tradition, the history of modern Ireland, and the Troubles.
Poets to be studied include John Montague, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Eavan Boland, Paul Muldoon, Rita Ann Higgins, Bernard O'Donoghue, Dennis O'Driscoll, and Medbh McGuckian.

Particulars: Writing requirements include two 5-7 page critical papers based on the work of poets studied, and one longer 10-12 page final essay based upon independent study of additional work (poems or volumes not studied in class) by one or more poets studied. The focus of the course is on individual volumes of poetry and on their relation to the poet's entire oeuvre. Each student is responsible for reading the complete poems of one poet and leading a discussion of a particular volume studied by all students. Textual study of the poems will be complemented by manuscript examination in Special Collections when possible.

Eng 789R: Special Topics in Literature: Women and Ireland
Higgins, Tu 1:00-4:00, Max: 7 (Eng 789R/WS 585P)

Kathaleen ni Houlihan! Why
Must a country, like a ship or a car, be always female,
Mother or sweetheart?
Louis MacNeice

Content: Women and Ireland. Women of Ireland. Women in Ireland. Mna na hEireann. Each conjoining word reflects some of the difficulties in talking about the way women in Ireland are both the subjects and objects of Irish literature, history, politics and culture.  From James Clarence Mangan’s Dark Rosaleen to W. B. Yeats’s Cathleen ni Houlihan to Seamus Heaney’s bog queens, the connection between Ireland as a woman and her need for male protection and rescue has remained dominant in Irish writing.  When contemporary poet, Eavan Boland, began to write, she looked for herself in the tradition of Irish poetry and could not find any representation of her life there.  Indeed she ruefully remarks, “it was easier to put a bomb than a baby in the Irish poem”.

Taking up Eavan Boland’s claim that men have equated Ireland with an impossibly idealized woman, "Women and Ireland" listens to and interrogates female voices. This seminar offers an examination of literary, cultural, familial, and personal writings by women across such genres as the novel, the poem, and the letter. It also acknowledges anxieties (not least as seen in the recent Field Day Anthology controversy) about Irishwomen's access to the space of literature. "Women and Ireland" privileges three areas of study in particular: (i) Mother Ireland in literature and culture; (ii) Gender and sexuality in the twentieth-century (iii) Irish women’s poetry.

Texts: The course will make extensive use of Emory’s archival resources in Irish writing. Writers and critics will include Eavan Boland, Angela Bourke. Brian Friel, Lady Gregory, Seamus Heaney, Edna Longley, Deirdre Madden, Medbh McGuckian, Nuala Ni Dhomnaill, Edna O’Brien, W. B. Yeats and the poets included in The Wakeforest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry.

Particulars: TBA.
(Open to qualified Seniors with permission from Prof. Higgins and the DGS)

Eng 740R: Studies in Twentieth-Century British Literature: Eliot, Yeats, and the Divided Tradition of 20th-century British Poetry
Schuchard, W 4:00-7:00, Max: 12

Content: Through an intensive study of major writings by T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats, this seminar will explore the nature of the divided romantic-classical traditions of modern British literature. Moving back and forth from Yeats to Eliot decade by decade, we will further examine the literary politics of their mutual criticism and seek an understanding of the modern temper in their antithetical temperaments.

Texts: Readings will focus on their poetry and non-fiction prose. The problems and hands-on solutions of editing the massive amounts of unpublished letters, prose, and other documents by these two modern writers will be part of the discussion and practice of the seminar.

Particulars: Each member will be responsible for leading discussions of designated poems and essays by each poet. At least 20-25 pages of critical writing are required, the number of papers to be negotiated with each student early in the semester.
(Open to qualified Seniors with permission from Prof. Schuchard and the DGS)

ENG 205: The Oral Interpretation of Poetry
Flannery. T-Th, 2:30-3:45

Among the great pleasures of poetry is, in the words of critic Stephen Fry, “the sheer physical, textual, tactile pleasure of feeling the words on your lips, tongue, teeth, and vocal cords.” This course will involve a close analysis of a wide range of poetic forms in terms of sense (that is, ideas, meaning, vocabulary, imagery, character and context) as well as sound (melody, tempo, meter, rhythm and rhyme). Students will be required to write bi-weekly response papers on the purely analytical aspect of the course. They will also be required to write a final paper.

But beyond this they will be required to participate in a regular series of exercises designed to introduce them to the performance of poetry. It can be helpful, though it is not essential, if students in the course have some experience of performance, be that music, theater or dance.

One of the aims of the course is ear training, meaning the development of a heightened sensitivity to the purely musical qualities of poetry. Another is developing the techniques of breath support, diction, vocal placement, tone color and phrasing required to interpret poetry aloud.