UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK
SCHOOL OF ENGLISH
Third Year English Courses for 2015-16
This is an outline list of English courses for the session 2015-16. Every effort is made to ensure
that the contents are accurate. No guarantee is given that modules may not be altered,
cancelled, replaced, augmented or otherwise amended at any time.
Before deciding which courses you are going to choose you will also need a timetable, reading
list and fuller details of course arrangements which will be available from the school in August.
PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EACH INDIVIDUAL
STUDENT TO DISCOVER AND FULFIL THE EXACT REQUIREMENTS OF
THE COURSE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM.
OUTLINE OF MODULE REQUIREMENTS
Single Honours (50-credit Subject)
 Students take 50 credits as follows:
EN3009 (20 credits) plus three modules (15 credits) from Semester 1 and three modules
(15 credits) from Semester 2.

Students must include in their selection at least one lecture or seminar course from
the range of Old English, Middle English and Renaissance courses. (These are
designated with the letters OMR on departmental course lists.)

Students may substitute one module from Semester 1 with one module from
LL3001, LL3002.
Major (40-credit Subject)

Students take 40 credits as follows:
EN3006, EN3007 or EN3008 (10 credits) plus three modules (15 credits) from Semester
1 and three modules (15 credits) from Semester 2.

Students must include in their selection at least one lecture or seminar course from
the range of Old English, Middle English and Renaissance courses. (These are
designated with the letters OMR on departmental course lists.)

Students may substitute one module from Semester 1 with one module from
LL3001, LL3002.
Joint Honours (30-credit Subject)

Students take 30 credits as follows:
EN3006, EN3007 or EN3008 (10 credits) plus two modules (10 credits) from Semester 1
and two modules (10 credits) from Semester 2.

Students must include in their selection at least one lecture or seminar course from
the range of Old English, Middle English and Renaissance courses. (These are
designated with the letters OMR on departmental course lists.)

Students may substitute one module from Semester 1 with one module from
LL3001, LL3002.
Major (20-credit Subject)

Students take 20 credits as follows:
Two modules (10 credits) from Semester 1 plus two modules
(10credits) from Semester 2.

Students may not take EN3006, EN3007, EN3008, EN3009, LL3001, LL3002.
Single (10-credit Subject)

Students take 10 credits as follows:


One module (5 credits) from Semester 1 plus one module (5 credits) from Semester 2.
Students may not take EN3006, EN3007, EN3008, EN3009, LL3001, LL3002.
COURSES AND TEXTS
EN3015 OF MONSTERS AND MEN: OLD AND EARLY ENGLISH LITERATURE:
(O MR )
5 Credits, Semester1. (TB)
Early Medieval literature reveals that horror is by no means a modern phenomenon. This course
analyses the heroes, monsters and monstrous human behaviour of early medieval texts (such as
Beowulf) as cultural constructions which reveal a society’s values and fears. It places texts that
examine humour and horror within cultural and theoretical contexts that challenge the critical
status quo, and invites students to explore features of the medieval corpus too often hidden
(literally and figuratively) from the light of day. We will take anthropological constructs of the
liminal – those outside of a society yet central to its sense of identity – and the theoretical
concept of the abject, and consider how these constructs might be used to illuminate medieval
concepts of self and other, us and them, acceptable and alien.
At the edges of a world engulfed in fears, we find another culture in which heroes play with
puns, students celebrate smut and monks revel in a world of women and wine. By examining a
range of texts from both the prose and poetic corpus, we will analyse the role and function of
the hero and ‘the other’, and ask where authors draw the line between the monster and the man.
Knowledge of Old English is not a pre-requisite for this course. Set
texts:
Students are strongly recommended to acquire:
Fulk, R. D., ed., The Beowulf Manuscript. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010 [includes
Judith, The Wonders of the East, The Letter of Alexander and The Passion of St Christopher,
alongside Beowulf itself]
Scudder, Bernard, ed. The Saga of Grettir the Strong. London: Penguin, 2005.
Treharne, E. M., ed., Old and Middle English c.890-c.1400: An Anthology. 3rd edition.
Oxford: Blackwell, 2009 [includes ‘The Battle of Maldon’, ‘The Life of St Margaret’, and a
selection of Old English riddles.]
Other short texts will be provided in offprint form.
Assessment: Total Marks 100: Continuous Assessment 100 marks (in-class tests (50%) to take
place during week of 19th October and a take home essay (50%) at the end of Semester 1,
submission date will be confirmed by the lecturer)
EN3037 EUROPEAN CINEMA: (GY/BM)
5 Credits, Semester 1.
The module examines two major film movements in European cinema up to the present.
Representative films from each movement are examined in detail with particular reference
being made to the roles played by the director, editor and cinematographer in the formation of
film style and meaning. The selected film movements will be placed within socio-historical,
cinematic, political and theoretical contexts. Film movements studied will be German
Expressionism (1919-25) and Movements in Scandinavian Cinema.
A full list of texts and further reading will be distributed at the start of the course.
Assessment: Total Marks 100: Continuous Assessment 100 marks (in-class tests (50%) to take
place during week of 19th October and a take home essay (50%) at the end of Semester 1,
submission date will be confirmed by the lecturer)
EN3048 TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE: (LJ/SH)
5 Credits, Semester 2.
This module explores a selection of 20th Century American writing with reference to historical
background and contexts, race and gender, from the 1920s to 2000.
Harlem Renaissance: African American writing from the 1920s.*
Larsen, Nella, Passing [1929]. Penguin Classics, 2003.
Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury [1929]. Vintage Classics, 1995.
O’ Hara, Frank. selected poems.*
O'Brien, Tim. In the Lake of the Woods. Flamingo, 1995.
Morrison, Toni . Song of Solomon (1977). Vintage, 1998.
* These texts will be made available in photocopy form
Formal Written Examination: 1 x 1.5 hr(s) paper(s) to be taken in Summer 2016.
EN3051 CRITICAL THEORY: TWENTIETH-CENTURY THEORIES OF
LITERATURE (AG/GA)
5 Credits, Semester 2
This module introduces students to a range of twentieth-century theories of literature and
culture. It discusses theoretical perspectives on literature and culture, selected from among
the following: Marxist, structuralist, feminist, narratology, psychoanalytic/trauma,
deconstructionist and post-structuralist.
Set Texts: these will be made available in offprint form from the School office.
Formal Written Examination: 1 x 1.5 hr(s) paper(s) to be taken in Summer 2016.
EN3065 ROMANCE: MEDIEVAL TO RENAISSANCE (KR/AK/COM)
5 Credits, (OMR) Semester1.
Stories of Arthur and his knights, of exile and of return (sometimes even from death), crises of
identity and love, perilous encounters with otherworldly beings: these are some of the
recurring concerns of romance, a genre which, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, served its
audiences with exemplary and sensationalist narratives in startlingly varied, and often
sophisticated ways. This module will explore the diversified nature of English romance
writing from this period, through close thematic study of some the most important examples,
both anonymous and authored.
3065.1 Medieval Romance
Sir Gowther, ed. E. LEaskaya and E. Salisbury. Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 1995.
Available online at http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/laskaya-and-salisbury-middleenglish -breton-lays-sir-gowther-introduction.
Sir Amadace, ed. E. Foster. Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 2007. Available online at
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/foster-sir-amadace-introduction.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Sir Gawain and The Green
Knight, Pearl, Clanness, Patience, ed. J. J. Anderson. London: Everyman,
1996.
Students may also use the translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon
Armitage in The Norton Anthology of English Literature (9th ed.) vol. 1.
3065.2 Renaissance Romance
Edmund Spenser. The Faerie Queene, ed. A.C. Hamilton, 2nd edition. London:
Longman, 2006.
Sir Philip Sidney. The Old Arcadia, ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones. Oxford: World’s
Classics, 1985.
Assessment: Total Marks 100: Continuous Assessment 100 marks (in-class tests (50%) to take
place during week of 19th October and a take home essay (50%) at the end of Semester 1,
submission date will be confirmed by the lecturer)
EN3072 ROMANTIC LITERATURE (COG/GA)
5 Credits, Semester1.
This module will develop students’ understanding and experience of literature in English from
the Romantic period (1770-1830). It covers a selection of literary texts from the Romantic
period. Students are exposed to conflicting definitions of Romanticism and encouraged to
critically analyse the selected texts in the light of these theoretical descriptions. Special
emphasis is placed on the role of poetryand prose fiction, and on the gendered nature of
writing in the period.
Wu, Duncan. Romanticism: An Anthology. 4th Edition. Oxford: Blackwell,
2012.
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. Ed. Susan Fraiman. London: W. W. Norton
& Co., 2004.
Wollstonecraft, Mary and Mary Shelley. Mary, Maria, or The Wrongs of
Woman and Matilda. Ed. Janet Todd. London: Penguin, 1993.
Assessment: Total Marks 100: Continuous Assessment 100 marks (in-class tests (50%) to take
place during week of 19th October and a take home essay (50%) at the end of Semester 1,
submission date will be confirmed by the lecturer)
EN3073 VICTORIAN LITERATURE (HL/MO’C) 5 Credits, Semester 2
This module introduces students to literature in English from the Victorian period. The set
texts are analysed in the context of relevant social, economic and political transformations in
Victorian society. Emphasis is placed on genre, the representation of urban and rural spaces,
class and gender division, and questions of Nation and Empire.
Kipling, Rudyard, Kim. London: Penguin, 2011.
Conan Doyle, Arthur, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: Penguin,
2011.
Gaskell, Elizabeth, Mary Barton. Ed. Thomas Recchio. London: W.W.
Norton and Co., 2008.
Hardy, Thomas, Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Ed. Scott Elledge. London: W.W. Norton
and Co., 1991.
Additional material will be made available in the form of a Course Booklet, to be
purchased from the School office.
Formal Written Examination: 1 x 1.5 hr(s) paper(s) to be taken in Summer 2016.
EN3075 CONTEMPORARY IRISH WRITING (EW/AD)
5 Credits. Semester 1.
This module gives the opportunity to explore a range of contemporary Irish writing. We
study texts in three genres (drama, poetry, fiction) from the 1960s to the present. The
module is taught in three segments: contemporary Irish poetry, contemporary Irish fiction
and contemporary Irish theatre.
Contemporary Irish Poetry
The opening one-third of the module outlines the main themes developed, and the
differing formal tactics adopted, by Irish poets over the last forty years. It will focus on a
small number of poets, chosen from among the following: Thomas Kinsella, Seamus Heaney,
Eavan Boland, Derek Mahon, Medbh McGuckian, Paul Muldoon, Catherine Walsh.
Required Reading
The set poems will be provided in a booklet which will be available from the School
of English office.
Contemporary Irish Fiction (EW)
In this segment we study three novels, one from the 1960s and two from the 2000s, attending
both to theme and form. First comes McGahern’s early masterpiece, with its searching
exploration, through a woman protagonist’s viewpoint, of rural Irish culture and values just
before the major social changes of the 1960s. Keane and Tóibín’s writings address both those
alterations and underlying questions of Irish identity and society in modernity, and the three
texts exhibit significant differences in the handling of fictional form. The focus will be
comparative, and module participants will be required to cover two of the texts.
Required Reading
McGahern, John. Amongst Women. 1990. London: Faber, 2007.
Tóibín, Colm. The Empty Family. London: Penguin, 2011.
Keane, Molly, Good Behaviour London: Virago,2006.
Contemporary Irish Theatre (EW)
Required Reading
Murphy, Tom. ‘The Gigli Concert’. Methuen 9780413659309.
Translations by Brian Friel. Faber & Faber 9780571117420.
Assessment: Total Marks 100: Continuous Assessment
Note: There are three sections in this module. Students are expected to attend lectures for all three sections but
will be required to complete assessments for two sections only. Each student is free to decide which two
sections they wish to be assessed. Once you submit the essay for any one section, this will be deemed to be one of
your two chosen sections. Therefore, if you have already submitted two essays, you will not be permitted to do
the class test for the third section in the hope of achieving a higher mark.
EN3076 CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE AND CULTURE (NH/HL)
5 Credits, Semester2.
This module introduces students to a selection of post-1980s British, American and
postcolonial literary works. The course will examine these works in relation to such topics as
innovations in narrative form, empire and the decline of empire, and transformations in racial,
gender and class politics. Particular attention will be paid to the interaction between
contemporary literature and history.
Literary Texts:
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. London: Vintage, 2013.
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. London: Penguin, 2001.
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2003.
DeLillo, Don. Cosmopolis. New York: Scribner, 2003.
Formal Written Examination: 1 x 1.5 hr(s) paper(s) to be taken in Summer 2016.
EN3077 THE IRISH LITERARY REVIVAL & IRISH MODERNISM (AD/EW/MOC)
5 Credits, Semester1
This course will give students a foundation in Irish writing and film, Irish cultural history and
Irish literary criticism in the modernist period. It will explore a range of texts drawn from
various forms (fiction, poetry, drama and/or film) from the late nineteenth century up to the
1960s.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916. London:
Penguin Classics, 2000.
Bowen, Elizabeth. The Last September. 1929. London: Vintage, 1998.
Beckett, Samuel. Murphy. 1938. London: Faber, 2008.
Drama Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama (Second Edition)/ Ed John
P. Harrington W. W. Norton & Company; 2nd edition, 2008.
W.B. Yeats, Yeats’s Poetry, Drama, and Prose. Ed. James Pethica. New York:
Norton, 2000.
Assessment: Total Marks 100: Continuous Assessment
Note: There are three sections in this module. Students are expected to attend lectures for all three sections but
will be required to complete assessments for two sections only. Each student is free to decide which two
sections they wish to be assessed. Once you submit the essay for any one section, this will be deemed to be one of
your two chosen sections. Therefore, if you have already submitted two essays, you will not be permitted to do
the class test for the third section in the hope of achieving a higher mark.
EN3078 CONTEMPORARY THEATRE (AE/JG/MO’C)
5 Credits, Semester 2.
To introduce students to plays at the crossroads of modernism and postmodernism which
initiated and developed contemporary forms of drama and theatre since the post-WW2 period.
The module offers and analysis of plays by British, Irish and North American authors who are
responsible for the renaissance of drama and transformation of its language and forms from the
1950s onwards. The double revolution of content and aesthetics, as led simultaneously by John
Osborne and Beckett in the late 1950s, led to further experiments and developments in political
drama and in the shape and construction of theatre works. Most of the dramatists under
scrutiny are still writing and using a multitude of theatrical and literary idioms to examine and
reflect upon their and our environment.
The module will locate selected plays in the cultural contexts of British, Irish and American
societies from the 1960s and into the very contemporary period. It will explore the variations to
be found in aesthetic modes and possible common moral and political values, as well as looking
at the relationship between form and meaning.
Through the most contemporary plays studies, we will examine the role of voice, image, sound,
bodies, film and digital media in theatre and performance, including an examination of liveness
and performativity, through critical texts and performance examples.
Wesker, Arnold. The Kitchen
Beckett, Samuel. Krapp’s Last Tape
Murphy, Tom. Whistle in the Dark
Carr, Marina. Portia Coughlan
Parks, Suzan-Lori. Topdog/Underdog
Tucker Green, Debbie. Stoning Mary
Formal Written Examination: 1 x 1.5 hr(s) paper(s) to be taken in Summer 2016.
EN3107
STUDIES IN SHAKESPEARE (ES/AK) 5 Credits, Semester2. (OMR)
Murdered or ineffectual rulers, otherworldly entities, children in the oppressive shadow of
their fathers, strange new worlds, and diseased societies struggling, sometimes in vain, for a
new birth and beginning: these are some of the threads making up the rich tapestry of
selected plays spanning Shakespeare’s writing career. Our analysis and appreciation of the
plays will employ close study of their context, handling of generic traditions, dramatic
potential and audience expectations, and the content of ideas and themes embodied within
these acted worlds. The chosen texts showcase both the innovations made by Shakespeare
and how he worked within inherited dramatic traditions.
Plays studied:
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Measure for Measure
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Timon of Athens
Set
text: William Shakespeare, The Norton Shakespeare, ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al.
3rd ed. New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2015.
. Formal Written Examination: 1 x 1.5 hr(s) paper(s) to be taken in Summer 2016.
EN3108
MODERNISM (LJ/AD) 5 Credits, Semester 2.
To introduce students to a range of modernist texts. This module considers
experimental literature from the early to mid-twentieth century.
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems. New York: Dover
Thrift Editions, 1998.
D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2010.
D.H. Lawrence and H.D., selected poems.*
Ezra Pound. Selected Poems, 1908-1969. London: Faber and Faber, 1977.
Mina Loy, selected writings.*
Virginia Woolf. Mrs Dalloway. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1996
*These texts will be available in photocopied form.
Formal Written Examination: 1 x 1.5 hr(s) paper(s) to be taken in Summer 2016.
INTERDEPARTMENTAL MODULES
LL3001: Postmodern and Contemporary European Cinema: 5 Credits
Course co-ordinator: Laura Rascaroli (Film and Screen Media, SLLC) Tel.: 2471 Email:
lr@ucc.ie
Moving beyond the traditional approach to the study of European film as a set of distinct
national cinemas, this module proposes a continental and transnational view of contemporary
European film. Through the analysis of a choice of films made from 1970 to date, it covers
topics such as the postmodern city, history and nostalgia, travel and emigration, postmodern
and transnational identities, the evolution of film genres, style and ideology, the local and the
global.
Semester 2, classes will be held on Tuesdays 11 – 12noon in ORB 2.55 and Wednesdays 3 4pm.in CPB_LG52
Commencing: Tuesday 12th January 2016.
LL3002: Travel Writing: 5 Credits
Course Co-ordinator: Silvia Ross (Department of Italian) s.ross@italian.ucc.ie
This module examines the theory and practice of travel writing. Students will read a set of texts
(in English and in English translation) that range from nineteenth century literature to
contemporary writing. We will be looking at writers who have travelled to such places as Italy,
Spain, North Africa and the Middle East, among others. We will consider issues such as the
nature of the genre, the relationship between writing and travelling, and the conceptualization
of foreign cultures.
Semester 2: Lectures take place on Tuesdays, 1-2 p.m. in WDL_PDT and Thursdays, 3-4 p.m.
in Elec L2
Commencing: Tuesday 12th January 2016.
NOTE:
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TB
CC
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AD
AE
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JG
SH
NH
LJ
AK
HL
LL
BM
COG
CO’M
KR
ES
EW
GY
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Staff Member
Professor Graham Allen
Dr Mary Breen
Dr Tom Birkett
Professor Claire Connolly
Ms Valerie Coogan
Professor Alex Davis
Dr Anne Etienne
Dr Alan Gibbs
Dr Jools Gilson
Dr Sarah Hayden
Dr Niall Heffernan
Professor Lee Jenkins
Dr Andrew King
Dr Heather Laird
Dr Liam Lanigan
Dr Barry Monahan
Dr Clíona Ó Gallchoir
Dr Cian O’Mahony
Dr Kenneth Rooney
Dr Edel Semple
Dr Éibhear Walshe
Dr Gwenda Young