LIT248   Irish Fiction   (20 credits)

Description

The module will look at Irish fiction as an engagement with the extraordinary political changes undergone by Ireland in the transition to a free Republic, looking at stories/novels which stage (political) violence and mental/political disturbances of all kinds, from domestic abuse through to terrorism, attacks on the Big Houses, outrages of the struggle against Britain and during the civil war. It will also be looking at a range of topics, which may include: representations of Dublin and city spaces more generally; relations between Irish writing and the Revival; comedy and satirical modernism; allegories of Ireland in the gender politics and psychology of the novels and short stories; critique of Catholic and nationalist ideologies; staging of secular/Nietzschean versions of heaven and hell; the relationship between Irish culture and Europe / European modernism. The three key writers will be James Joyce, Flann O¿Brien and Samuel Beckett ¿ and consideration of texts by Elizabeth Bowen, Sean O¿Faolain, and Frank O¿Connor.

Reading List