Northern Irish Writing, 1935 - 2005
Course Description: This one semester course explores the ways in which a
selection of Irish writers have responded to the successive conflicts of the Second
World War and the Northern Ireland Troubles. We will examine a range of works
published over a period of sixty years, addressing the socio-historical contexts in
which these were written, and considering the varied literary forms that emerged in
the period. We will also assess relevant critical and popular responses to these
writers in relation to their perceived public role. While the course places emphasis on
the generation of writers born during the late 1930s and early 1940s, it also aims to
reappraise the significance of those who preceded, and have succeeded, Seamus
Heaney and his contemporaries. Seminars will be based around the texts listed
below.
* Please note that, in Dr. Guy Woodward's absence, Dr. Maria Johnston will be the
course lecturer for Michaelmas 2012. Her course schedule reads as follows:
Week 1) Introduction
Week 2) Louis MacNeice, Collected Poems (2007)
Week 3) Seamus Heaney, Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996 (1998) along with a
number of key prose texts and more recent poems
Week 4) Michael Longley, Collected Poems (2006)
Week 5) Derek Mahon, New Collected Poems (2011)
Week 6) Stewart Parker, Pentecost (1987) and selected prose writings
Week 7) Study Week
Week 8) Paul Muldoon, Poems 1968 - 1998 (a selection of more recent poems by
Muldoon will also be provided for analysis and class discussion)
Week 9) Ciaran Carson, Belfast Confetti (1990) (a selection of more recent poem will
also be provided for analysis and class discussion)
Week 10) Glenn Patterson, FAT LAD (1992)
Week 11) The Post-Troubles Generation: Sinead Morrissey, Alan Gillis, Leontia
Flynn and Miriam Gamble (key poems for analysis and discussion will be provided)
Week 12) Kevin Smith, Jammy Dodger (2012) - Conclusions
A full critical bibliography will be provided at each seminar.
Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1) Identify and discuss in depth some of the most significant Northern Irish
writers of the past seventy years.
2) Employ a range of interpretative critical approaches to analyse strategies
developed by a range of writers to the challenges posed by the Second World
War and the Troubles to the contested space of Northern Ireland.
3) Understand the cultural, political and social contexts from which the texts
emerged.
Dr. Maria Johnston
Email: mjohnst@tcd.ie
4) Appreciate the charged political and public role of the poet in Northern Ireland.
Recommended Secondary Criticism:
Andrews, Elmer, Writing Home: Poetry and Place in Northern Ireland (Woodbridge:
Brewer, 2008)
Brearton, Fran, The Great War and Irish Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000)
___________, and Alan Gillis, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry
(Oxford University Press, 2012)
Brown , John, In the Chair: Interviews with Poets from the North of Ireland (Galway:
Salmon, 2002)
Buxton, Rachel, Robert Frost and Northern Irish Poetry (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
2004)
Campbell, Matthew, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Clark, Heather, The Ulster Renaissance: Poetry in Belfast, 1962 - 1972 (Oxford:
OUP, 2006)
Corcoran, Neil, Poets of Modern Ireland (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1999)
___________, The Chosen Ground: Essays on the Contemporary Poetry of
Northern Ireland (Bridgend: Seren, 1992)
Craig, Patricia, The Belfast Anthology (Belfast : Blackstaff Press, 1999)
Dawe, Gerald, The Proper Word: Collected Criticism (Creighton University Press,
2007)
__________, ed., Earth Voices Whispering: An Anthology of Irish War Poetry, 1914 1945 (Belfast:Blackstaff Press, 2008)
Goodby, John, Irish Poetry Since 1950 (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
2000)
Heaney, Seamus, Finders Keepers: Selected Prose (London: Faber, 2002)
Longley, Edna, Poetry in the Wars (Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 1986)
___________, The Living Stream: Literature and Revisionism in Ireland (Newcastle:
Bloodaxe, 1994)
___________, Poetry and Posterity (Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 2000)
___________, 'Altering the Past: Northern Irish Poetry and Modern Canons',
Yearbook of English Studies, 35, Irish Writing Since 1950 (2005), pp. 1-17
McDonald, Peter, Serious Poetry: Form and Authority from Yeats to Hill (Oxford:
OUP, 2002)
_____________, Mistaken Identities: Poetry and Northern Ireland (Oxford: OUP,
1997)
Patterson, Glenn, Lapsed Protestant (New Island Books, 2003)
Parker, Stewart, Dramatis Personae, ed. by Gerald Dawe, Maria Johnston and Clare
Wallace (Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2008)
Quinn, Justin, The Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry (Cambridge
University Press, 2008)
Russell, Richard Rankin, Poetry and Peace (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010)
Wills, Clair, Improprieties: Politics and Sexuality in Northern Irish Poetry (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1993)
Dr. Maria Johnston
Email: mjohnst@tcd.ie