NOTE: For an updated syllabuse and details go to Moodle.

Feb 20 - NO CLASS. I will try to make up for that session at the end of the semester.

Feb 27
INTRODUCTION

March 6 and 13
NATION, WOMAN, SHIP AND CAR
Mocking Traditional Tropes

Reading for March 6

PRIMARY TEXTS
Eavan Boland, "Mise Eire,"
Vona Groarke, "The Imperial Measure"
Patrick Pearse, "Fornocht do chonac thú", "Mise Éire", "Mother"
Aodhagán Ó Rathaille, "Gile na Gile"

SECONDARY SOURCES
Eavan Boland, "In Search of a Nation", Object Lessons (Manchester: Carcanet, 2006), 52-71.
Máirín Nic Eoin, "Sovereignty and Politics, c. 1300-1900", in Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Irish Women’s Writings and Traditions, Vol. 4, eds. Angela Bourke et al. (Cork: Cork University Press, 2002), 275. (In the department library or on: http://books.google.cz/books?id=V01-76iQ48gC&pg=PA273&dq=Nic+Eoin+Sovereignty&hl=cs&sa=X&ei=-J_7Uv3tBsXNtAbimIHAAw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Nic%20Eoin%20Sovereignty&f=false )

Reading for March 13

PRIMARY TEXTS
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, "Caitlín", "Masculus Giganticus Hibernicus"
Máirtín Ó Direáin, "Éire ina bhfuil Romhainn"
Paul Muldoon, "Aisling"
Eavan Boland, "Tirade for the Epic Muse"

SECONDARY SOURCES
David Wheatley, "Changing the Story: Eavan Boland and Literary History", The Irish Review 31 (Spring/Summer 2004): 104-120.
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, "Introduction: Contemporary Poetry", in Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Irish Women’s Writings and Tradition. Vol. 4., 1290-97.
Patricia Coughlan, "‘Bog Queens’: The Representations of Women in the Poetry of John Montague and Seamus Heaney", in Theorizing Ireland, ed. Claire Connolly (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 41-60.

NOTE: The reading for March 6 and 13 to be confirmed and uploaded by February 27. The underlined essays are those assigned for presentation.

March 20 and 27
THE RAGS OF LANGUAGE
Techniques of Silence and Obliquity

Reading for March 20 and 27

PRIMARY TEXTS
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, "Gloss/Clós/Glass", "The Last Glimpse of Erin", "Passing Over in Silence"
Vona Groarke, "An Teach Tuí", "White Noise", "Away"
Medbh McGuckian, "Venus and the Rain", "Aviary", "The Soil Map"

SECONDARY SOURCES
Justin Quinn, "Feminism and Irish Poetry", The Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry, 1800-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 161-74.
Guinn Batten, "Boland, McGuckian, Ní Chuilleanáin and the Body of the Nation", in The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry, ed. Matthew Campbell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 169-88.

Apr 3 and 10
POETRY IN IRISH & THE POLITICS OF TRANSLATION
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Biddy Jenkinson, Aifric Mac Aodha

Reading for April 3 and 10

SECONDARY SOURCES

Frank Sewell, "Between Two Languages: Poetry in Irish, English and Irish English", Cambridge Companion to Irish Poetry, ed. Matthew Campbell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) 149-68.
Brian Ó Conchubhair, "The Right of Cows and the Rite of Copy; an Overview of Translation from Irish to English", Éire-Ireland 35.1/2 (2000): 92-111.
Biddy Jenkinson, "A Letter to an Editor", Irish University Review 21.1 (Spring/Summer 1991): 27-34.
Biddy Jenkinson, "Máire Mhac an tSaoi: The Clerisy and the Folk (P.I.R. 24): A Reply", Poetry Ireland Review 25 (Spring 1989): 80.
Aifric Mac Aodha, "A Talkative Corpse: The Joys of Writing Poetry in Irish", Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art (25 October 2011). http://columbiajournal.org/902
Justin Quinn, "Incoming: Irish Poetry and Translation", in The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry, eds. Fran Brearton and Alan Gillis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland: Translation, Languages, Cultures (Cork: Cork University Press, 1996).

Apr 17 and 24
THE NEW AND THE VERY NEWEST
Vona Groarke, Caitríona O’Reilly, Sinéad Morrissey, Ailbhe Darcy

Reading for April 17 and 24

SECONDARY SOURCES
Vona Groarke, "Editorial", Verse 16.2 (1999): 7-8.
Justin Quinn, "The Irish Efflorescence", Poetry Review 91.4 (2001/2): 4-8.

May 15
TRITE BUT TENACIOUS
Current Debates and State of Affairs

Reading for May 15

SECONDARY SOURCES
Patricia Coughlan, "‘The Whole Strange Growth’: Heaney, Orpheus and Women" in Irish Feminisms: Special Issue of Th