The course provides a survey of selected works by 20th-century Irish poets and playwrights. Beginning with the Irish Literary Revival, the class is structured chronologically. Poets treated range from W. B. Yeats to such later writers as Patrick Kavanaugh, Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney; featured playwrights range from those associated with the nascent Abbey Theatre to Samuel Beckett, Frank McGuinness and Marina Carr. Recurring themes include the role played by literature in both forming and critiquing Irish nationality and identity, as well as how various authors reacted to and sublimated such traumatic events as the Troubles.
Classes typically consist in a discussion of the assigned work(s), subsequent to a brief introductory lecture providing relevant biographical, historical and cultural context. When discussing plays, video clips from performances are occasionally featured. The weekly reading load consists of either a play or a selection of poems. Grades are awarded on the basis of preparedness for and participation in weekly discussions, a composition treating a work by an Irish writer, and a semester test.
- Nauczyciel: Jeremy Pomeroy