Subject Area: English
This course can also be studied in the following specialisation: European Studies

This course will offer students an opportunity to study late nineteenth and twentieth-century Ireland through some its most distinguished and innovative literature. It will focus on a selection of major Irish writers, such as W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Elizabeth Bowen, who made a sizeable contribution to international modernism. The course will relate literary works to cultural and historical issues in Ireland, including the Irish revival, the Irish struggle for independence, and the colonial relationship with Britain. While Irish, these writers are also responsive to a European political and intellectual revolution and this course will bring together the national and international dimensions of their work. including their impulse to renovate and experiment with inherited forms and genres. It will take an interdisciplinary approach, introducing you to key aspects of Irish and European history, especially the Irish cultural revival and the political revolution, while also engaging in close textual and formal analysis of literary artworks. A range of genres will be studied including the novel, autobiography, short story, drama and poetry. It will enhance your understanding of a major literary tradition within modern Europe, while also cultivating your capacity to reflect on the relationship between politics and culture.