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| Sept. 11 |
Colonial Ireland |
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Swift, "A Modest Proposal";
Background & Focus Questions for "A Modest Proposal"
O'Connell, "Lament for Art O'Leary" (handout)
Apes & Angels (handout);
Focus Question: Analyze the propaganda in the images. If you were English and hadn’t seen any Irish people, what would these images lead you to believe about them?
Research "Wiki" Entry due to the discussion board before class. Be prepared to explain your topic and its relevance to Irish history (and today's readings, if applicable) to the class.
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| Sept. 14 |
THE FLIGHT OF EARLS
ICC Historian, Sean Prior, will present the story of The Flight of Earls on Friday, September 14, at 7:30 PM at the Irish Cultural Center. 2007 marks the 400th anniversary of the pivotal moment in Irish history which was the end of the ancient Gaelic Order that had existed in Ireland for over 1000 years. The cost is $5.00. |
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| Sept. 18 |
Imagining a Modern Irish Identity |
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O’Leary,
“The Hunger” (handout); Davis, “A Nation Once
Again”; Mangan, “Dark
Rosaleen”; “Roisin
Dubh/Little Black Rose” (Kinsella translation, handout). Hyde, “Necessity
for De-Anglicizing Ireland” (handout); Moran, “The Battle of Two Civilizations” (handout).
Focus Questions:
- Think about the ways that "A Nation Once Again," "Dark
Rosaleen," and "Little Black Rose" imagine or represent Ireland as a
non-colonial entity. Who do the texts blame for Ireland’s
woes? Do they focus on the causes that had left Ireland with a
self-image of victimized failure, or do they go further and imagine a
positive modern Irish identity to replace colonial stereotypes?
- What's Moran's thesis in “The Battle of Two
Civilizations”? Who does he hold responsible for the decay of
Irish civilization?
- How do Hyde and Moran view "West Britonism"?
- Compare the lyric "Little Black Rose" with the more modern
“Dark Rosaleen.” What similarities and differences are
significant in terms of national identity-building?
- In “The Necessity for De-Anglicizing Ireland,” who does
Hyde hold responsible for the decay of Irish culture and
language? According to Hyde, why did people abandon Irish?
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Sept. 21
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Sept.
21: Third Friday Celi
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Sept. 25
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Gregory, Our
Irish Theatre (MID
377-386); “The Rising of the Moon” (MID 54-62); Yeats, Cathleen Ni
Houlihan (3-11); Yeats, On Bailes’ Strand (MID 12-32),
Synge, Riders to
the Sea (MID 63-72)
Focus Questions:
- Our Irish
Theatre: How do the goals of the Irish theatre and the obstacles
the founders encountered connect to other discussions we've had about
Irish identity to date?
- Rising of the Moon: Identify the
conflict dramatized in this play. Is this conflict
resolved by the end of the play?
- Cathleen Ni Houlihan:
identify and analyze the political metaphors and symbolic language that
informs this play. Do you think that Yeats is inciting young
Irish males to violent rebellion?
- On
Bailes' Strand: How does Yeats revise the Tain prestory we read
("The Death of Cuchulainn's One Son") to emphasize conflicts such as
duty vs. desire, community loyalty vs. individual freedom? Does
the play take a pro-nationalist stance, or do you see it as more
ambiguous?
- Riders to
the Sea: Does this play dramatize a conflict between Christianity
and ancient, pagan beliefs? If so, how? Is one religious
view shown as more powerful than the other?
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October 2
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Shaw, John
Bull’s Other Island (MID)
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October 9
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Synge, Playboy
of the Western World (MID)
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Annotated
Bibliography due.
Focus Questions:
- In his Preface to The Playboy
of the Western World, JM Synge writes that “on the stage, one must
have reality, and one must have joy.” The reality
in this play comes from the account Synge heard, when in the Aran
Islands, about a man who “killed his father with the blow of a spade
when he was in passion, and then fled to this island and threw himself
on the mercy of some of the natives with whom he was said to be
related.” Which other realistic elements inform
this play? And what creates the joy Synge believed
to be crucial for the stage?
- Why do the townspeople accept
Christy Mahon after he reveals that he has killed his father?
- Christy tells the story of his
father’s murder several times. Carefully read the
multiple narratives of that murder. How does
Christy change his story, and what effect does it have on his audience?
- The townspeople treat Christy as a
hero. Is he heroic?
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| October 13 |
Ceilidance workshops at the Center are on the second Saturday of the month from 1:00-3:00 PM. These are two hour dance intensive for beginning and advanced dancers. Beginners will focus on basic footwork and simpler Ceili dances (Fairy Reel, Siege of Ennis, etc). Advanced dancers will learn more difficult figure dances (Cross Reel, Trip To The Cottage, etc). If you are an expereinced Ceili go-er or if you have never danced before, this is the class for you! Make new friends and learn how to dazzle the spectators at the next ICC Ceili. Admission is $16.00 for adults and kids under 12 $2.00 Dates for the Ceili workshops for 2007 are October 13, November 10, December 8 For further information, please call (602) 258-0109. |
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The “Irishry” have preserved their ancient
“deposit” through wars which, during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, became wars of extermination. No people, Lecky said at
the opening of his Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, have
undergone greater persecution, nor did that persecution altogether
cease up to our own day. No people hate as we do in whom that
past is always alive, there are moments when hatred poisons my life. .
. .Then I remind myself that though mine is the first English marriage
I know of in the direct line, all my family names are English, and that
I owe my soul to Shakespeare, to Spenser, and to Blake, perhaps also to
William Morris, and to the English language in which I think, speak,
and write, that everything I love has come to me through English; my
hatred tortures me with love, my love with hate.
–W.B. Yeats,
“A General Introduction for my Work”
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October 16
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Yeats, "The Fisherman," "September 1913"; "Easter 1916";
"The Circus
Animals' Desertion" (handout);
Pearse, “I am
Ireland,” “Ideal,
or Renunciation,” “The Rebel”;
“Proclamation
of the Irish Republic”; Stephens, selections from The
Insurrection in Dublin. Pearse
& Yeats Focus Questions.
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October 23
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Moore,
“Homesickness” (handout); Joyce,
selections from Dubliners and Ulysses:
- "The Dead"
("The Dead" is the final story in Joyce's short story collection Dubliners.) Print out this story and read it
carefully.
- “Telemachus.”
This is the opening episode of Ulysses.
It focuses on the young teacher Stephen Dedalus who has recently
returned to Dublin after leaving it for Paris at the end of
Joyce's novel A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man. Please
print this episode out.
- "Calypso."
This
is the fourth episode, which introduces us to Mr. Leopold Bloom, Jewish
ad salesman and "Odysseus" character who wanders around Dublin on
June 16, 1904. Look it over, but
you don't need to print this out.
- "Penelope."
This is the final episode, which occurs in Molly Bloom's mind.
Check it out, but you don't need to
print it out.
Focus questions for "The Dead":
- How would
you describe Gabriel Conroy? Find several places in
the text where his character is revealed through exposition
(description) and action/dialogue. Does his
character change after his "epiphany" (sudden revelation)?
- Pay close
attention to the character of Freddy Malins. How is
he represented? Beyond comic relief, what is his
function in the story?
- Who narrates
this story? Is s/he reliable?
- Pay
attention to the references to political figures important to Irish
history. What are Gabriel's attitudes toward them?
- Much
critical attention has been focused on the story's ambiguous ending.
Based upon evidence in the text, do you think Gabriel
achieves "heroic" transcendence and a new level of self-knowledge as he
transcends his material circumstances, or does his swoon indicate a bow
to the inevitable paralysis resulting from his own inadequacy and the
sterile world into which he has been acculturated?
Focus Questions for "Homesickness":
- Which assumptions about America
influence the way that the people of Bryden's native village treat him
when he goes back to Ireland?
- He
seems to prefer his life in America. Why? Is it as idyllic
as his Irish friends assume?
- He has an opportunity to take
Margaret to America with him. Why does he make the choice that he
does?
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October 30
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Modern
Irish Identity
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Keane, The
Field
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November 6
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Sheridan, The
Field
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November 13
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Research at Irish Cultural Center must be completed by this date.
Heaney, "Punishment" (handout) & "Casualty" (web).
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Nov. 17: third Friday Celi
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November 20
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Focus
questions (for both week's discussion):
- On the first page,
McCourt sets up several Irish stereotypes--"the shiftless loquacious
alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire;
pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters," etc.--and his memooir does
introduce several characters to whom these stereotypes would seem to
apply. However, the story eventually complicates, revises, or
shatters these stereotypes. How does he achieve this?
- How does the Cuchulain myth shape
or reflect Fank McCourt's emerging identity? Why does he display
such unusual possessiveness about Cuchulain stories?
- Apart from Cuchulain, who are
Frank's other role models? How do they affect his childhood
identity?
- Why did Frank's mother and father
both treasure Margaret so much more than any of the boys? Do they
have different reasons?
- As always, bring in your own
questions.
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November 27
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Finish
Angela’s
Ashes.
- Consider the complex
characterization of Frank's father. His alcoholism deeply affects
the physical and emotional wellbeing of his family, yet Frank often
portrays him as gentler and more nurturing than Frank's mother.
Also, we learn that he has the ability to stop drinking when adequately
motivated, as he maintains two sober periods in the text. Given
this, apart from physical addiction, why does his father get
drunk? What psychic need does it fulfill, if any?
- Practically from birth, Frank is
labelled as having his father's dark looks and "odd" manner (note how
often this is contrasted to his brothe Malachy's bright, charming smile
and blond curls), which in some sense marks him as one who all expect
to follow in his father's footsteps--hardly an optimistic future.
How does Frank escape this path?
- The reader quickly realizes that
the title refers to the author's mother, Angela. But how are we
to understand the second word in the title; that is, what are Angela's ashes?
What do they represent?
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Dec. 4
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Modern Irish Identity |
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Dec. 7
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Final
Projects due by 3:00 p.m.
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| August 21 |
Introduction to class. |
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On Thursday, August 23rd, your first blackboard post is due by 10:00 p.m. Introduce yourself to the class and indicate in your message that you accept the Seminar Participation Guidelines. |
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| August 28 |
Ancient Ireland |
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Tain—Prestories 1-50; Smedley, from Race in North America (handout)
Focus Question: National epics such as The Tain reflect the values important to a culture's identity, so as you read the "Prestories" that set out the background for the Tain Bo Cuailgne (Cattle Raid of Cooley), identify the qualities or things you think this ancient culture values. You might also consider what it devalues. How do these things relate to modern America's self-image? |
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Sept. 4
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The Tain 52-253
Focus Questions:
- How does the heroic code work? What are the rules of combat, if any? Who respects them, who breaks them?
- The “Combat of Ferdia & Cuchulainn” chapter is considered by many to be the heart of The Tain. Read this chapter carefully and prepare to discuss why you think Cuchulainn and Ferdia make the choices that they do. What do you consider to be the most significant aspects of the human condition illustrated in this section of the narrative?
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Think about representations of gender and power in The Táin. From which roles are characters excluded due to their gender? For which characteristics or behaviors are they valued?
Reading Response Prompt: Choose one of the questions above, then post your response to the discussion board before class today.
You may find this supplementary material interesting:
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