Irish Literature & 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, The course will chart the pressures placed on literary/visual styles associated with Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism by the anomalies of Irish experience, framed by the legacies of W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett. Beginning with a viewing of the classic film The Quiet Man, attempts by subsequent generations of writers and filmmakers to bring images into line with the harsh realities of postcolonial experience will be examined. Filmmakers discussed will include Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan, Lenny Abrahamson, Ken Loach, and contemporary writers will range from Brian Friel, John McGahern, William Trevor, Patrick McCabe, and Alice MacDermott to more recent figures such as Donal Ryan, Tana French, Mary Costello, Eimear McBride and Colin Barrett.

The aim of this course is to provide a critical engagement with the lived experience of Irish culture, as it has been represented in major works of both film and fiction. The course will not only address key themes but will also attend to questions of form and style, examining how representations have both been shaped by, and in turn have transformed, Irish society, and enable students to bring their own experiences of American culture to bear on course material.

The course is cross listed with ENG314.