Irish Literature and Film

This course will examine dominant images of Ireland in film and literature from Romantic Ireland and the images of the Celtic Revival, to the harsher realities of Irish life and the transformations of Irish society under modernity and globalization. Issues discussed will include emigration and immigration; nostalgia and loss; gender, family and community; Church and State; politics and violence; language and communication, and the country and city. Students will examine the pressures placed on literary/visual styles associated with Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism by the anomalies of Irish experience. Authors and filmmakers discussed will include a broad range from W.B. Yeats and James Joyce, to Alice MacDermott, Tana French, Neil Jordan, and Ken Loach.