Syllabus

Week One: Céad Míle Fáilte! [A Hundred Thousand Welcomes]

9/30
9 – 11:30: Readers’ Theatre: Molly Sweeney (Brian Friel)
12:30 – 3: Seminar: why you? why now? why Ireland?

10/1
9 – 11:30: Starting the Irish Language; Being vs. Having
12:30 – 3: Film: In Search of Ancient Ireland

10/2
9 – 10:30: Liminality, Sacredness, and Irishness
11 – 1: Ancient Irish Legends

Assignment for Week Two: read Irish Traditional Music, chapter 1 (“Looking in from the Outside”) and The Táin. Come to Monday’s seminar with your book, prepared to discuss what you have read; during Wednesday’s work we will integrate the week’s events and prepare for the following week. Review your Irish language materials, as we’ll be working with them frequently. Consider posting sticky notes all over your house as you begin to learn about the language. Test your roommates on how to say “good morning,” “good night,” “excuse me,” and “thank you” in Irish.

Week Two: Ancient Ireland: Living Between Worlds

10/7
9 – 11:30: Bardic and Druidic Traditions; Senses of Place
12:30 – 3: Film: Celtic Trilogy

10/8
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: Guest artists Marta Cook and Devin Shepherd

10/9
9 – 10:30: Readers’ Theatre: Cathleen Ní Houlihan (W.B. Yeats)
11 – 1:  Join the Session! (Bring your instruments)

Assignment for Week Three: Read the first half of In Search of Ancient Ireland (pp.3-131) and Traditional Irish Music, chapter 2 (“Roots and Branches of Gaelic Ireland”). Come to Monday’s seminar prepared to discuss what you have read; during Wednesday’s work we will integrate the week’s events and prepare for the following week. Complete your first five-page integrative essay (on ancient Ireland); it’s due on Friday, 10/18 in Sean’s mailbox (not in e-mail form; typed, double-spaced, stapled hard copy).

Week Three: Ancient Ireland: Spirituality and Sexuality

10/14
9 – 11:30: Indigenous Spiritualities
12:30 – 3: Film: The Secret of Roan Inish [102 minutes]

10/15
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: Irish Knotwork workshop; The Brehon Laws & Gender Issues

10/16
9 – 10:30: Readers’ Theatre: Deirdre (W.B. Yeats)
11 – 1: Join the Session! (Bring your instruments)

Assignment for Week Four: Read the second half of In Search of Ancient Ireland (pp.132-265) and Traditional Irish Music, chapter 3 (“Hang All Harpers Where Found”).  Come to Monday’s seminar prepared to discuss what you have read; during Wednesday’s seminar we will integrate the week’s events and prepare for the following week. Don’t forget to check the website (under “assignments”) to be sure you understand what is expected of you.

Week Four: The First Conquests

10/21
9 – 11:30: St. Patrick and Early Catholicism
12:30 – 3: Film: In Search of Ancient Ireland, pt. 2 and 3

10/22
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: Musical Traditions of the Ancient Irish, Scots, and Welsh

10/23
9 – 10:30:  The Vikings and the Normans
11 – 1: Join the Session! (Bring your instruments)

Assignment for Week Five: Read “Translations” by Brian Friel (Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama) together with “On Brian Friel” (pp.540-558). Read also the first half of In Search of Ireland’s Heroes, pp.3-144. Come to Monday’s seminar prepared to discuss what you have read; during Wednesday’s work we will integrate the week’s events and prepare for the following week.

Week Five: The British Conquest of Ireland

10/28
9 – 11:30: Hang All Harpers Where Found
12:30 – 3: Land and Language

10/29
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: Film: The Curse of Cromwell and When Ireland Starved

10/30
9 – 10:30: Readers’ Theatre: Translations (Brian Friel)
11 – 1: Translations, continued

Assignment for Week Six: Read Paddy’s Lament, parts 1 and 2 only (or, if you really want to be depressed, read the whole thing – how anyone even made it here alive is beyond anyone’s wildest reckoning). Come to Monday’s seminar prepared to discuss what you have read; during Wednesday’s work we will integrate the week’s events and prepare for the following week. This is also the weekend to develop a (two-dimensional) visual response to the Famine. Bring your visual response with you to seminar on Monday the 4th.  Fair warning: brace for this terrible but important work.

Week Six: The Great Hunger – An Gorta Mór

11/4
9 – 11:30: English and Irish Historiography of the Famine
12:30 – 3: Film and Discussion: The Hanging Gale pt. 1 [101 minutes]

11/5
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: Discussion of the final presentation

11/6
9 – 10:30: Film and Discussion: The Hanging Gale pt. 2 [104 minutes]
11 – 1: Songs and Poetry of the Famine (no instruments today)

Assignment for Week Seven: Skim through The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats and read both “Riders to the Sea” and “Playboy of the Western World” by J.M. Synge (Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama), together with “On J.M. Synge” (pp. 453-472). Select six different poems from the Yeats book that “speak” to you at a gut level; read out loud and discuss two poems in detail in your small group in seminar. You will be asked to learn ONE Yeats poem by heart for your final evaluation. Come to Monday’s seminar prepared to discuss – in a small group – what you have read; during Wednesday’s work we will integrate the week’s events and prepare for the following week.

Week Seven: The Celtic Twilight I

11/11
9 – 11:30: The National Literary Movement and “The Leagues”
12:30 – 3: Traditional dance workshop with Brían Ó hAirt.

11/12
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: Reader’s Theatre: Riders to the Sea (J.M. Synge)

11/13
9 – 11: Planning meetings for final presentations

Assignment for Week Eight: Read “The Rising of the Moon” and “Spreading the News” by Lady Gregory, and “Juno and the Paycock” by Seán O’Casey (Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama), together with “On Lady Gregory” (pp. 443-452) and “On Seán O’Casey” (pp. 496-516). Read also “Murmuring Name Upon Name: From Literature to Armed Rebellion” and “A Terrible Beauty: the Irish War of Independence,” from In Search of Ireland’s Heroes, pp. 201-244. Come to Monday’s seminar prepared to discuss what you have read; during Wednesday’s work we will integrate the week’s events and prepare for the following week. Complete your second five-page integrative essay (on post-Conquest Ireland); it’s due on Friday, 11/22 in Sean’s mailbox in Com 301 (not in e-mail form; typed, double-spaced, stapled hard copy). Note that completing it before Thanksgiving is good. You need time to read Dubliners too. Trust me on this.

Week Eight: The Celtic Twilight II

11/18
9 – 11:30: Physical Force and Moral Force in Irish Nationalism
12:30 – 3: Film: Juno and the Paycock [85 minutes]

11/19
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: The War of Independence and the Irish Civil War

11/20
9 – 10:30: Reader’s Theatre: The Rising of the Moon (Lady Gregory)
11 – 1: Join the Session! (Bring your instruments)

Assignment for Week Nine: Read Dubliners (James Joyce). Be sure to read the entire set of short stories; this is the place to get deeply inside issues of men and women, and parents and children. Note the progression of the book from early childhood to adulthood to death and beyond. Come to Monday’s seminar prepared to discuss what you have read; during Wednesday’s work we will integrate the week’s events and prepare for the following week. Have you reviewed the Yeats poem you plan to recite by heart at your final evaluation? Do you know your Raftery poem as well?

Week Nine: The Celtic Twilight III

12/2
9 – 11:30: The Art of James Joyce
12:30 – 3: Film: James Joyce’s The Dead [82 minutes]

12/3
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: Irish Language and Review

12/4
9 – 10:30: Readers’ Theatre: Spreading the News (Lady Gregory)
11 – 1: Join the Session! (Bring your instruments)

Assignment for Week Ten: Prepare your presentations and the Yeats poem that you plan to recite for your evaluation. Review your Irish language notes for the exam (yes, the exam!) on Monday the 9th. Note that our collaborative presentations will be this week as well.

Week Ten: Wrapping Up the Quarter

12/9
9 – 11:30: Irish Language Exam
12:30 – 3: Film: The Informer [92 minutes]

12/10
9 – 11:30: Seminar
12:30 – 3: Potluck Lunch and Final Presentation Rehearsals (all afternoon)

12/11
9 – 10:30: Collaborative Presentations
11 – 1: Collaborative Presentations

Assignment for winter break: read Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt).  Write a three-page response essay to Angela’s Ashes on the subject of choices. Include both parents and the priests along with your discussion of Frank himself. It is due on Monday, January 6, in seminar.

Be aware that you will need to pay your $500 (nonrefundable) deposit to do the study abroad portion of the program by Friday, February 14, 2014. It’s coming right up. Have a great holiday, and don’t forget to sing “Oíche Chiúin” for anyone who will listen.