This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
Much Irish writing in the 20th and 21st centuries has been torn between tradition and innovation, between the need to define a national identity in opposition to Britain and the desire to transcend national boundaries and embrace a cosmopolitan modernity. With four nobel laureates in the 20th century (Yeats, Shaw, Beckett, Heaney), modern Irish literature has gained international recognition. In recent years, Irish Literature has undergone surprising changes in theme and content, moving from the insularity of parochialism to the emergence of the 'Global Irish novel". The charting of this development will provide an important framework for the discussion in this module of recurrent issues in Irish writing, such as history, cultural memory, violence and society, queer sexualities and gender relations, national and cultural identities, and the negotiation of what the historian Roy Foster has called the 'varieties of Irishness'. The module will consider a broad variety of Irish writing from 1975 to 2014: sampling significant developments in poetry, drama and prose.
Total contact hours: 32
Private study hours: 268
Total study hours: 300
Main Assessment Methods:
Essay 1 3,000 words 40%
Essay 2 3,000 words 40%
Seminar Participation 20%
Reassessment methods:
100% coursework (4,500 words)
The University is committed to ensuring that core reading materials are in accessible electronic format in line with the Kent Inclusive Practices. The most up to date reading list for each module can be found on the university's reading list pages: https://kent.rl.talis.com/index.html
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 read and respond critically to a range of Irish poetry, drama and fiction
2 learn to situate and discuss literary texts in their historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts
3 explore the specific connection between literature and history in Irish writing
4 explore a range of theoretical approaches to literary texts, including postcolonial perspectives
5 demonstrate an ability to interrogate and understand contemporary Irish culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 demonstrate their ability to analyse texts critically and make comparisons across a range of reading
2 demonstrate their abilities to articulate coherent critical arguments using a variety of methods
3 understand and interrogate various critical approaches and the theoretical assumptions that underpin these approaches
4 develop their abilities to carry out independent research
5 develop their presentational skills
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