Storytelling: Writing Irish Cultural Narratives

This course will examine the role of storytelling in Irish culture and the way in which "story" is used to create a narrative of Irish culture. It will provide an introduction to traditional oral folk traditions, modernist documentations in the Irish short story, theatrical performance, filmic narratives, and the contemporary iteration of cultural change on the streets of its capital city. Through exploring the tradition of storytelling in Ireland, from conservation to subversion and from folk tale to street art, students will discover in and out of the classroom how this embedded feature of Irish culture allows and obstructs how to present and represent a nation to itself and others and how the students too can create a story. Students will have an opportunity to practice immersive research and to engage in a variety of different modes of storytelling.