SPECIAL STUIES SEMINAR MODULE 2015-16
EN3006 SPECIAL STUDIES SEMINAR 1: Semester 1 - 10 Credits, taken by assessment
EN3007 SPECIAL STUDIES SEMINAR II: Semester 2 - 10 Credits, taken by assessment
EN3008 SPECIAL STUDIES SEMINAR III: Semester 1&2 – 10 Credits, taken by assessment.
EN3009 SPECIAL STUDIES SEMINAR IV: 20 Credits, taken by assessment, Semesters 1
& 2. (NOTE: EN3009 consists of any two seminars from those offered in EN3006, EN3007 and
EN3008)
This module is designed to develop students’ skills in reading, writing and critical practice through closelydirected study and constructive discussion of a range of selected texts. Students must choose one from the
wide range of topics offered by the staff of the School of English. The range of topics will cover a variety
of forms, genres and periods. Once a student has signed on for a seminar, attendance is required.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance will be noted at each class and failure to attend will be penalised as below.
NON-ATTENDANCE PENALTY
If a student misses one-third (i.e. 8 hours) of scheduled classes, without supplying relevant
documentation to the co-ordinator, s/he automatically fails the module. Scheduled classes include 24 classcontact hours plus any other events scheduled for the group. In film modules the same level of attendance is
required at screenings and the same penalty applies.
The seminar co-ordinator will email students who have missed one-sixth (i.e. 4 hours) of scheduled classes
without supplying relevant documentation, to remind them of this rule and penalty. S/he will
use the student’s official UCC address when contacting the student.
A student who has failed a seminar due to non-attendance may continue to attend and hand in essays. These
marks will not, however, be submitted for the summer exam board but will be held over for the autumn board.
Any essays not submitted during the academic year will have to be submitted before a date designated by the
school office, plus an extra essay in lieu of the participation mark. The student may then pass this module
for the autumn exam board, but the result for the module will be capped at
40%.
ASSIGNMENT of MARKS in SEMINAR MODULES
1.
Participation
15%
2.
Oral presentation (or equivalent)
15%
3.
In-class written assignment(s)
20%
4.
Take-home written work*
50%
*not exceeding 4,000 words in total
WRITTEN OUTLINE OF ASSESSED WORK
At the start of the Teaching Period each co-ordinator will give a written outline of the work expected
for nos. 2, 3 and 4 to students in each seminar.
ASSIGNMENT OF MARKS EXPLAINED BY CATEGORY
1. Participation: 15%
Students can gain these marks by contributing actively to each class. This means carrying out all tasks
assigned, being ready and willing to discuss the material and the topics addressed in class, and cooperating with other class members and the co-ordinator.
2. Oral presentation: 15%
Marks awarded here for committed, organized and effective preparation and delivery of set oral
assignment(s), e.g. discussion of a text, author or topic, or another type of project assigned by the coordinator.
3. In-class written assignment(s): 20%
These may take various forms, e.g. a quiz or exercise, short essay, or discussion of a text or excerpts
from texts.
4. Take-home written work, not exceeding 4,000 words in total: 50%
This may consist of one, two or more essay(s) or other assignments, of varying lengths, e.g. a
write-up of the oral presentation, or another type of project as assigned by the co-ordinator.
CONSULTATION AND ADVICE ON TAKE-HOME WRITTEN WORK
Seminar co-ordinators will offer individual consultations to students concerning their performance in the
seminar module. Co-ordinators may
respond to students’ questions or difficulties about the material
explain marks given for assignments
give students advice about how to improve their written style
help students with essay planning.
Co-ordinators will not
Read or correct drafts of essays or other assignments or offer detailed advice about their
improvement, in advance of their being handed in for marking.
SEMINAR REGISTRATION INFORMATION
NB* Steps for signing up to Third Years Seminars – Note you must COMPLETE each of the steps below in
order to ensure registration on a seminar.
NB* It is your responsibility to ensure that the seminar you choose does not clash with your other modules.
Important steps to be completed in the seminar registration process:
1. Attend the 3rd Year Introductory Lecture on Tuesday 8th September at 10 a.m. in
Boole 2. At this lecture, each student will draw a numbered ticket which will
determine their time-slot for seminar registration on Friday 11th September. Check
your ticket number against the table below for the time allotted to your ticket number.
Time
Ticket Numbers
9.30 – 9.50 a.m.
1 – 50
9.50 – 10.10 a.m.
51 – 100
10.10 – 10.30 a.m.
101 – 150
10.30 – 10.50 a.m.
151 – 200
10.50 – 11.10 a.m.
Latecomers who missed their allotted
time or who have no ticket
Note: If you leave the lecture hall without a ticket, or if you lose your ticket, you may
come at the 10.50 – 11.10 a.m. slot.
2. On Friday 11th September 2015, assemble in the Social Area near the School of
English (Block B, 1st Floor) at the appointed time (according to your ticket number).
Students will be called up in groups of ten (in numerical order) to proceed to
ORB_1.65, where they will register for a seminar. As the number of places on each
seminar is limited, please have at least three seminars selected in order of
preference in case your first option is unavailable.
3. You will receive a record card on which you will be required to indicate the seminar in
which you have secured a place as well as the other modules that you are taking. You
should complete and sign this card and return it immediately to the School Office
(ORB 1.57).
4. Ensure that your online registration is correct. Make a note of the modules you have
selected and check this against your online registration. Check also that you are
registered for the correct seminar module code, as follows:
Semester 1 Seminar:
Semester 2 Seminar:
Semester 1&2 Seminar:
EN3006
EN3007
EN3008
You will be able to change your module registration online until Friday 18th September
2015. However, if you wish to withdraw from a seminar or transfer to a different
seminar, you must contact Valerie Coogan. Email: valcoogan@ucc.ie Office: 1.63 in
O’Rahilly Building.
THIRD ARTS ENGLISH – SEMINARS 2015-2016
Seminar Leader
Teaching
Period
Module
Seminar
Code
Code
DAY & TIME
VENUE
MOD
3.01
OMR 3.02
Thursday 12.00 – 2.00
Carrig3_G01
Tuesday 12.00 – 2.00 pm
ORB1.65
Tuesday, 11 am – 12 noon*
Thursday, 11 am – 12 noon*
*students must attend both
sessions
Tuesday, 11 am – 12 noon*
Thursday, 9 am – 10 am*
*students must attend both
sessions
Friday 9.00 – 11.00 am
ORB 1.65
ORB 1.44
Wednesday, 3.00 – 4.00 pm*
Friday 6.00 -7.00 pm*
*students must attend both
sessions
Thursday 10.00 -11.00 am
ORB 1.65
Triskel
Wednesday, 9-11 am
ORB 1.65
Wednesday, 9-11 am
ORB 1.65
Wednesday, 12 noon – 2.00 pm
ORB 1.65
Thursday, 11.00 -12 noon
ORB 1.65
Tuesday, 2.00 – 4.00 p.m.
Carrig3_G01
Thursday, 2.00 – 4.00 pm
ORB1.65
Thursday, 2.00 – 4.00 pm
ORB 1.65
Wednesday, 4:00 – 5.00 p.m.
Wednesday, 5.00 – 6.00 p.m.
*students must attend both
sessions
Thursday, 10 am – 12 noon
Eld 5_G01
ORB_G42N
Tuesday, 3-5 pm (screening)*
Thursday, 10 am – 12 noon
(seminar)*
*students must attend both
sessions
Monday, 5-7pm
ORB_203
Carrig3_G01
Professor Graham Allen
Semester 2
EN3007
Dr Tom Birkett
Semester 2
EN3007
Ms Valerie Coogan
Semester 1
EN3006
MOD
3.03
Ms Valerie Coogan
Semester 2
EN3007
MOD
3.04
Professor Alex Davis
Semester 1
EN3006
Dr Anne Etienne
Semester 2
EN3007
MOD
3.05
MOD
3.06
Dr Anne Etienne
EN3008
Dr Jools Gilson
Semesters
1&2
Semester 1
Dr Niall Heffernan
Semester 2
EN3007
Professor Lee Jenkins
Semester 2
EN3007
Dr Andrew King
EN3008
Dr Heather Laird
Semesters
1&2
Semester 2
Dr Maureen O’Connor
Semester 1
EN3006
Dr Maureen O’Connor
Semester 2
EN3007
Dr Cliona O Gallchoir
Semester 1
EN3006
Dr Ken Rooney
Semester 1
EN3006
Dr Edel Semple
Semester 1
EN3006
Dr Eibhear Walshe
Semester 2
EN3007
EN3006
EN3007
MOD
3.07
MOD
3.08
MOD
3.09
MOD
3.10
OMR
3.11
MOD
3.12
MOD
3.13
MOD
3.14
MOD
3.15
OMR
3.16
OMR
3.17
MOD
3.18
ORB 1.65
ORB 1.65
ORB 1.65
ORB 1.65
Eld5_G01
ORB 1.65
Venues: ORB – O’Rahilly Building. Carrig3 – Room 1, Ground Floor, 3 Carrigside, College Road.Eld5_G01 – Room 1, Ground
Floor, 5 Elderwood, College Road.
8
Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
EN3007
MOD3.01
Teaching
Period
Semester 2
Day
Time
Thursday
12.00 – 2.00
Stanley Kubrick:
The Genius of
Adaptation
Seminar Leader
Professor Graham Allen
Venue
3 Carrigside, G01
Seminar Content
Every one of Stanley Kubrick’s major films was an adaptation of a literary work. This is of
interest since Kubrick is widely thought to be one of the greatest film-makers, and by
implication an artist with a unique vision. How do issues of uniqueness and adaptation, genius
and intertextuality, individuality and collaboration work in this instance? The answers this
seminar explores revolve around the differences observable in each example of cinematic
adaptation.
The seminar introduces students to both Kubrick’s masterful films and to the theory of
adaptation, by looking at a number of instances of literature to film adaptation.
Primary Texts
Kubrick’s Dr Stangelove and Peter George’s Red Alert
Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey and Arthur C Clarke’s 2001 A Space Odyssey
Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange
Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and W. M. Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon
Kubrick’s The Shining and Stephen King’s The Shining
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:

Analyse examples of literature to film adaptation;

Discuss issues concerning artistic creativity and intertextuality;

Explore critical readings in and between texts involved in a relationship of
adaptation.
9
Module Code
Seminar Code
EN3007
OMR 3.02
Teaching Period
Semester 2
Day
Tuesday
Seminar Title
Poetry of the Vikings
Time
12.00 – 2.00 p.m.
Seminar Leader
Dr Tom Birkett
Venue
ORB1.65
Seminar Content
The popular image of the Vikings is one of bloodthirsty pagans, with the series Vikings
depicting a world of blood, sex and sacrifice. But the Vikings also gave us the first parliament,
the word ‘law’, and the precursor to the modern novel, as well as granting sexual and inheritance
rights to women, discovering North America, and founding Cork! They also composed some of
the most extraordinary poetry to survive from the medieval period, documenting their beliefs,
venerating their heroes, and voicing their very human concerns about love, life and death.
In this course we will study a range of poetic genres dealing with legendary characters, heroic
battles and domestic troubles – from the poetic account of Odin’s discovery of runes, to
Guthrun’s awesome revenge on her husband – learning about the mythology of the Norsemen
and the stories that inspired Tolkien’s Middle-earth. We will also consider poetic responses to
the Vikings, including the Old English poems ‘The Battle of Maldon’ and ‘The Battle of
Brunanburh’, with a view to interrogating literary depictions of the Vikings. We will conclude
the course with a viewing of selected scenes from the Vikings series which reconceive Norse
poetry for a modern audience.
Texts will be read in translation.
Primary Texts
R. North, J. Allard, P. Gillies (eds), Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and
Anglo-Norman Literatures (London: Longman, 2011)
Carolyne Larrington, trans. The Poetic Edda (Oxford:OUP, 2008)
Selected texts will be made available online.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
•
•
•
•
•
Critically read and analyse a selection of Old Norse and Old English poetry,
recognizing different genres, themes and styles.
Understand the historical, social and political contexts in which these texts were
produced and circulated.
Discuss the different facets of Viking beliefs, customs and codes of behaviour.
Relate the poetry to the material culture and artwork of the Vikings.
Appreciate the literary afterlife of Old Norse poetry.
10
Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN 3006
MOD 3.03
Dying is an Art
Valerie Coogan
Teaching
Period
Day
Time
Venue
Tuesday
11.00 – 12 noon*
ORB1.65
Thursday
11.00 – 12 noon*
ORB1.44
Semester 1
*students must
attend both sessions
Seminar Content
The title of this seminar comes from a line in a poem by Sylvia Plath. The course examines the
theme of suicide in the selected texts. We will also focus on issues of gender, class, race, slavery
and feminism. Students will be encouraged in their oral presentations to relate the texts to other
works outside of the course.
Primary Texts
Plath, Sylvia, Collected Poems (New York:Faber1981)
Kane, Sarah, 4.48 Psychosis (London and New York: Methuen 2002)
Chopin, Kate, The Awakening (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Morrison, Toni, Beloved (New York: Vintage Classics, 2006)
Film: The Hours ( Daldry, 2002)
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:




Critically analyse the poetry of Sylvia Plath
Explore the dramatic form of 4.48 Psychosis
Examine narrative style and themes in Beloved
Consider culture and gender in The Awakening and The Hours
11
Module Code
EN 3007
Seminar Code
MOD 3.04
Seminar Title
Teaching
Period
Semester 2
Day
Tuesday
Thursday
Time
Venue
11.00 – 12 noon*
ORB1.65
9.00 – 10.00a.m.*
ORB1.65
*students must
attend both sessions
Dying is an Art
Seminar Leader
Valerie Coogan
Seminar Content
The title of this seminar comes from a line in a poem by Sylvia Plath. The course examines the
theme of suicide in the selected texts. We will also focus on issues of gender, class, race, slavery
and feminism. Students will be encouraged in their oral presentations to relate the texts to other
works outside of the course.
Primary Texts
Plath, Sylvia, Collected Poems (New York:Faber1981)
Kane, Sarah, 4.48 Psychosis (London and New York: Methuen 2002)
Chopin, Kate, The Awakening (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Morrison, Toni, Beloved (New York: Vintage Classics, 2006)
Film: The Hours ( Daldry, 2002)
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
 Critically analyse the poetry of Sylvia Plath
 Explore the dramatic form of 4.48 Psychosis
 Examine narrative style and themes in Beloved
 Consider culture and gender in The Awakening and The Hours
12
Module Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
Professor Alex Davis
MOD3.05
The Writings of W.
B. Yeats
Teaching Period
Day
Time
Venue
Semester 1
Friday
9.00-11.00 am
ORB1.65
EN3006
Seminar
Code
Seminar Content
This seminar looks at a range of Yeats’s works across the entirety of his career – poems, plays,
essays, autobiographies, and occult writings – tracing the development of his thought in the
context of contemporaneous events in Irish and European history. We will explore Yeats’s
altering political convictions, from his youthful republicanism to his late flirtation with fascism,
and his complex response to the formation of the Irish Free State. Yeats’s lifelong spiritualist
convictions are central to his work: we will thus consider his work in relation to his occult
apprenticeship in the Order of the Golden Dawn, his belief in magic and the supernatural, and
consider the other worldly inspiration for his major philosophical work, A Vision.
Primary texts
Selected poems from ‘Crossways’ to Last Poems; the plays Cathleen ni Houlihan, At the
Hawk’s Well, and Purgatory; selected fictional, occult, autobiographical, and critical writings,
including complete works and extracts from The Celtic Twilight, The Secret Rose, Per Amica
Silentia Lunae, A Vision, On the Boiler, and Autobiographies.
Required textbook
Yeats’s Poetry, Drama, and Prose, ed., James Pethica (New York: Norton, 2000).
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:




Critically read and analyse a selection of Yeats’s poetry, drama and prose
Discuss the cultural, political and social contexts which shaped Yeats’s oeuvre
Understand a range of critical responses to Yeats’s poetry
Comprehend Yeats’s adoption and adaptation of a wide variety of traditional poetic,
dramatic and prose forms
13
Module Code
EN3007
Seminar Code
MOD3.06
Seminar Title
What is Theatre?
Seminar Leader
Dr Anne Etienne
Teaching Period
Semester 2
Day
Wednesday
Friday
Time
3.00 – 4.00 p.m.*
6.00 - 7.00 p.m.*
*students must
attend both sessions
Venue
ORB1.65
Theatre Development Centre (TDC),
Triskel Arts Centre
Seminar Content
The seminar focuses on the critical issues surrounding theatre in its changing forms from the concept and
practices of the dramatic to the postdramatic and via the epic. Since the emergence of modern drama,
practitioners have explored all elements of theatre making leading theoreticians and critics to re-examine what is
theatre. This exploration of seminal texts will be coupled with field work in the form of work in progress held at
the Theatre Development Centre every week.
Through this double exploration of critical texts and practical work we will question what is theatre.
Primary and secondary texts
Required Texts:
Extracts from Aristotle, Brecht, Szondi, Williams, Esslin, Bentley, Lehmann will be found in the Reader.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:






Understand the central theories of twentieth-century theatre
Understand historical and current debates from the practitioners’ perspectives
Analyse the main elements of theatre making
Show extensive knowledge of the dramatic, epic and postdramatic dimensions
Assess the impact of the cultural and financial contexts of theatre production
Assess current practices critically
14
Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3008
MOD3.07
Drama and Controversy
Dr Anne Etienne
Day
Time
Venue
10.00 – 11.00 a.m.
ORB1.65
Teaching Period
Semesters 1&2
Thursday
Seminar Content
th
Throughout the 20 century, drama has enjoyed the status of a leisure activity for middle-class audiences. It has
also been sufficiently controversial for the State to insist on keeping a tight control over the topics discussed on the
stage. The seminar will focus on close reading of both playscripts and archival material. Through the study of
representative plays, analysed in their cultural context, we will discover the roots of controversy at different periods
of the 20 th century. Greater emphasis will be put on the 1900s and the 1960s, when key dramatists were engaged in
a struggle against Government-sponsored censorship as will be evidenced through governmental documents and
correspondence files. Through the original and oblique aspect of controversy, students will have the opportunity to
consider drama not solely as text but also as a politically disturbing form of literature.
Primary texts
George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession and The Shewing up of Blanco Posnet
Edward Bond, Saved and Early Morning
Archival and miscellaneous material in READER.
Extra reading for oral presentations to be decided in Week 2.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
 Demonstrate in written and/or oral assignments their knowledge and critical understanding of the
evolution of the 20th century British drama and of the practice of censorship.

Give evidence of their acquired knowledge of the dialectic relationship between the stage and the
Government;

Identify and argue the controversial potential of censored and contemporary plays

Address problems created by controversial plays;

Develop their analytical skills through textual analysis and adapt them throughout different types of
critical practice group oral exercises.
 types of critical practice group oral exercises.15
Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3006
MOD 3.08
Food & Culture
Dr Jools Gilson
Teaching Period
Semester 1
Day
Time
Venue
Wednesday
9.00 – 11.00
ORB1.65
Seminar Content
This seminar introduces students to the travels of food as literal fact and metaphor across a range of
cultural genres – literature, film, performance and visual art. It asks what meanings food traditionally has,
especially in relation to gender and sexuality, and how such meanings are reinforced, transgressed or
otherwise re-worked in each literary / film / performance / visual example. Students will be introduced to
theoretical texts which support and elaborate this discussion. This is an inter-disciplinary seminar which
closely examines the relationship between genre / discipline and meaning.
Primary texts/Required textbooks
Fiction / Drama / Non-Fiction & Performance Texts:
Baker, Bobby. Box Story. (London: Artsadmin. 2001)
Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. (Black Swan. 1993)
Howe, Tina. ‘The Art of Dining’ collected in Coastal Disturbances: Four Plays by Tina Howe. (New
York: Theatre Communications Group. 1979)
Film:
Arau, Alfonso. Dir. Like Water for Chocolate. (1992)
Axel, Gabriel. Dir. Babette’s Feast. (1987)
Greenaway, Peter. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. (1989)
Installation:
The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago
(1979)
Gnaw by Janine Antoni (1992)
Performance:
Baker, Bobby. Drawing on a Mother’s Experience. (1988)
Baker, Bobby. Box Story. (2001)
Learning outcomes
On completion of this course, students will be able to:
 Understand and discuss the plural meanings of food in a variety of contexts and cultural products.
 Understand and discuss the relationship between gender / sexuality and food.
 Understand and discuss the relationship between genre / discipline and meaning.
 Relate food examples in culture to wider theoretical discourses.
 Develop written arguments relating to the above.
 Develop an oral presentation relating to the above.
16
Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
The
Contemporary
American Novel
Seminar Leader
EN3007
MOD 3.09
Semester
Day
Time
Venue
2
Wednesday
9-11am
ORB1.65
Dr Niall Heffernan
Seminar Content
This module aims to give students an understanding of many ideas and themes running through
contemporary American fiction. The course explores novels by a range of twenty-first-century
American writers, and focuses on the ways in which contemporary fiction draws on or reacts
against existing literature. Detailed readings of individual novels will encourage students to take
account of the cultural context in which they were produced, and to consider the ways in which
contemporary writers engage with processes of rapid cultural and political change in the U.S.
The course reflects the diversity of contemporary American texts, including, for example,
popular genre fiction, representations of trauma, and the politics of race and ethnicity in the
United States. The course will also analyse narrative forms and critical theories such as
postmodernism, and examine texts through the perspectives of gender, class and race.
Primary Texts
Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad (Corsair, 2011)
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road (Picador, 2006)
Auster, Paul. Man in the Dark (Faber and Faber, 2008)
Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Penguin, 2008)
Morrison, Toni. Love (Vintage, 2003)
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:







Critically read and analyse a selection of contemporary American novels
Relate the set texts to one another and to other American novels
Discuss the cultural and historical background which frames the development of
American fiction
Define terms and concepts central to contemporary criticism
Apply these terms and concepts to the set texts
Participate in class and group discussions
Write clearly structured essays in correct Standard English that adhere to the School of
English style sheet
17
Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3007
MOD3.10
American Modernism
and the Jazz Age
Professor Lee Jenkins
Teaching Period
Day
Time
Venue
Semester 2
Wednesday
12.00-2.00
ORB1.65
Seminar Content
This seminar explores the cultures of the ‘Jazz Age’ of the American 1920s with reference to a range of
texts, including: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and related stories and essays; Ernest
Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises and his short story ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’; Anita Loos’
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; the writing of Gertrude Stein; the literary, visual and musical expression of the
Harlem or ‘New Negro’ Renaissance. We will also explore retrospective representations of the Jazz Age in
film, from Howard Hawk’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) to Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011).
Issues explored include: the relationship between modernism and American modernity; gender, sexuality
and race; ‘black’ modernism; the American avant garde; the Jazz Age in context and in retrospect.
Primary texts/Required textbooks
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (any edition)
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (any edition)
Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Penguin)
Midnight in Paris, dir. Woody Allen
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, dir. Howard Hawks
Other required reading will be made available in photocopied form
Learning outcomes
On successful completion, students should be able to:







Critically read and analyse a selection of texts, in various genres, by American authors and
directors, representing the 1920s
Relate the set texts to one another, and to their wider historical and cultural contexts
Discuss the cultural and historical backgrounds which framed and informed these texts
Define terms and concepts central to the topic
Apply these terms and contexts to the set texts
Deliver fluent written and oral responses to the set texts
Discuss and debate the set texts and the issues raised by the module topic in class
18
Module Code
Seminar Code
EN3008
OMR3.11
Teaching
Day
Thursday
Period
Semester 1&2
Seminar Content
Seminar Title
Edmund Spenser:
Elizabethan Poet in
England and
Ireland
Time
11.00 – 12.00
noon
Seminar Leader
Dr Andrew King
Venue
ORB1.65
Edmund Spenser (c.1552-1599) was the major non-dramatic poet of the Elizabethan period,
shaping his works and career into a complex response to the figure of the Queen and her realms.
From 1580 onwards he lived mostly in Co. Cork, and the ambivalent nature of his Irish
experience forms one of more fascinating aspects of his work. We will look at selections from
The Shepheardes Calender, The Faerie Queene, and the shorter poems and prose works.
It is a unique privilege to study and discuss the works of this poet in Cork, however
much that closeness may add a layer of complexity to the task. We should be able to visit the
remains of Spenser’s Kilcolman castle.
Primary Texts
Works Studied:
The Shepheardes Calendar (selections)
The Faerie Queene, Books I, V, and the 'Mutabilitie Cantos'
A View of the Present State of Ireland (selections)
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:




discuss a range of Renaissance genres and rhetorical
locate Spenser’s work and life in the complex milieux of Elizabethan and humanist
literary traditions, as well as the equally challenging siting of his activity in Ireland.
begin to explore the extraordinary intertextual and linguistic richness and variance of
Spenser’s poetry.
grapple with the difficulties inherent in Spenser’s relationship with his ‘adopted’ Irish
context.
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Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3007
MOD3.12
Reading Ulysses
Dr Heather Laird
Time
Venue
2.00‒4.00 p.m.
Carr3_G01
Teaching
Day
Period
Tuesday
Semester 2
Seminar Content
“Come on, you winefizzling ginsizzling booseguzzling existences!”
If any novel deserves to have a whole seminar course devoted to it, it is James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Ulysses is considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written. It may also be the funniest –
and the most difficult. This seminar offers students the opportunity to acquire a detailed and
intimate reading knowledge of a selection of episodes from Ulysses. In closely reading these
episodes, the seminar will provide an in-depth analysis of Joyce’s formal and stylistic innovations.
Additionally, as each week will focus on a particular theoretical or historical debate surrounding
Joyce’s text, students are introduced to a variety of critical readings that have emerged in Joyce
studies over the years.
Primary texts
James Joyce, Ulysses. Ed. Jeri Johnson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of ‘Reading Ulysses’, students should be able to:
-
Critically read and analyse a selection of episodes taken from Ulysses
Discuss the cultural and historical background which framed the writing of Ulysses
Define terms and concepts central to a reading of Ulysses
Apply these terms and concepts to the text
Participate in class and group discussions
Prepare and present an oral paper
Write clearly structured essays in correct Standard English that adhere to the School of
English style sheet.
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Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3006
MOD3.13
The Natural World
in Irish Women’s
Writing (Fiction,
Poetry, and Drama)
Dr Maureen O’Connor
Teaching
Period
Semester 1
Day
Time
Venue
Thursday
2.00-4.00
ORB1.65
Seminar Content
This module will be reading Irish women’s literature using theories of ecocriticism, which
considers the place of nature in human thought and the consequences of the relative position and
valuation of the ‘natural’ vis-à-vis the ‘cultural’ Both women and the Irish have traditionally
been associated with the natural, as opposed to the cultural, and seen as closer to the childlike,
the primitive, and the irrational in comparison with the normative, white, middle-class male. In
this course we will be focusing an ecocritical lens on contemporary Irish women’s poetry, prose,
and drama, with some readings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Irish
feminists first articulated the connections between the oppression of women and exploitation of
nature
Primary texts/Required textbooks
Sara Baume, Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither
Anne Haverty, One Day as a Tiger
Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats
Short fiction by George Egerton, Emma Donoghue, Claire Keegan, and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne
Poetry by Eva Gore-Booth Katherine Tynan, Paula Meehan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Katie
Donovan, Sinéad Morrissey, Mary O’Malley, and Moya Cannon
This short fiction and poetry, as well as theoretical material, will be provided in the module
booklet.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:




Identify and discuss the terms and concepts central to ecocritial and ecofeminist theory
Read and analyse a selection of Irish women’s writing from an ecocritical perspective
Identify and discuss the specific political and social implications of natural imagery in
contemporary Irish women’s writing
Deploy ecocritical theory in order to make connections between contemporary Irish
women’s writing and first-wave Irish feminists’ literary production.
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Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3007
MOD3.14
Irish Writing and
the Comic (Fiction
and Drama)
Dr Maureen O’Connor
Teaching
Period
Semester 2
Day
Time
Venue
Thursday
2.00-4.00 p.m.
ORB1.65
Seminar Content
This course considers the comic in contemporary Irish writing, which partakes of a long
tradition of black comedy, informed and vexed by the island’s history of complex and absurd
confrontations of religion, culture, and language. We will apply theories of comedy – including
excerpts from Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson, Mikhail Bakhtin, Homi Bhabha, Laura Salisbury,
and Nancy Walker (provided in the course booklet) – to selected literary texts in order to explore
the implications of comic expression, in particular from the perspectives of gender and
postcolonial theory
Primary texts/Required textbooks
Trevor Byrne, Ghosts and Lightning
Patrick McCabe, The Holy City
Irish women’s comic poetry, provided in the module booklet.
Short stories by Clare Boylan, Anne Enright, and Mike McCormack, provided in the module
booklet.
Marie Jones, Stones in His Pockets
Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:




Bring analytical and critical skills to bear—particularly the deployment of theories of
comedy—on the understanding and enjoyment of contemporary Irish writing
Identify and discuss the specific political and social implications of the use of comedy in
contemporary Irish literature
Discuss the cultural and historical contexts for contemporary texts and their relationship
to the tradition of the comic in Irish literature
Define and apply the terms and concepts central to an understanding of the comic in
Irish literature.
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Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3006
MOD3.15
Dr Clíona Ó Gallchoir
Teaching
Period
Semester 1
Day
The Limits of
Enlightenment: 18th
C. Literature
Time
4.00- 5.00 p.m.
5.00 – 6.00 p.m.
*students must
attend both
sessions
Eld 5_G01
ORB_G42 N
Wednesday
Venue
Seminar Content
The Enlightenment can be characterized as a revolutionary philosophical movement that
provided the basis for subsequent radical developments in politics and society. However, its
emancipatory ideas did not extend to all: women and racialized others were among those who
experienced the limits of Enlightenment. In this course, we will look at key works of eighteenthcentury literature in which these limits are explored and challenged, and in which those deemed
the ‘others’ of the ideal Enlightenment subject find articulation and expression. The content will
include Swift’s classic Gulliver’s Travels, as well as the first narrative by an African published
in England, Equiano’s Interesting Narrative. Texts will also include Mary Wollstonecraft’s
pioneering feminist text, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and a range of eighteenthcentury poetry.
Primary texts
Equianao, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus
Vassa, the African. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2003.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2003.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Extracts from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (handout)
A selection of poems will also be distributed as a handout.
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Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:








Relate literary works to their social and historical context
Relate literary texts to one another
Display an awareness of form in discussing texts
Use appropriate critical and theoretical frameworks when discussing texts
Critically analyse concepts of race, gender and class
Participate effectively in group discussion
Write coherent essays with appropriate and accurate use of sources and citations
Practise and improve oral presentation skills
Module Code
EN3006
Seminar Code
OMR3.16
Seminar Leader
Dr. K. Rooney
Day
Seminar Title:
Death and Life in
Medieval and
Renaissance Poetry
Time
Teaching Period
Semester 1
Thursday
10.00am – 12 noon
Elderwood 5_G01
Venue
Seminar Content
Poems on the buried body and the terrors of hell, dialogues between the living and the dead, between
man and God, and lyrics of strife and longing between men and women – these are some of the concerns
of the lyric poetry of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, which reveal a culture that celebrated both
the pleasures of life and the horrors of death to excess.
Exploring the startling range of lyric writing between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries, this course
will trace the impact of ideas surrounding living, dying, and what was to come afterwards. Some of these
lyrics preserve the earliest music in English, and hint at survivals of English medieval folklore and
popular ritual , in poems such as those on the man who lived in the moon, the enigmatic ‘maiden in the
moor’ and the so-called ‘Irish Dancer’ (which was later expanded by W.B. Yeats). Together with lyrics
of festivity and love, we will read elegies and epitaphs from seventeenth-century poets such as Herrick,
King, and Philips to their dead spouses, parents, and children, and the anonymous fourteenth-century
Pearl - a father’s troubling vision of his child in Heaven.
Using these texts, and the art of the period, we will investigate pre-modern ideas of death (and life),
discuss the ways in which these ideas were written, and the conditions that prompted them. The course
may be of interest to students of history, art, music, and languages, and to those who wish to develop
their understanding of the themes and forms of shorter English poetry over time.
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Primary texts/Required textbooks
Middle English Lyrics. Ed. M. Luria & R. Hoffman. New York: Norton, 1974.
Pearl, in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience. Ed. J. J. Anderson. London:
Dent, 2004.
Other texts will be supplied in photocopy.
Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3006
OMR3.17
Shakespeare on the Page and
Screen
Dr Edel Semple
Teaching Period
Day
Time
Venue
Semester 1
Tuesday (Screening)
Thursday (Seminar)
3.00-5.00 p.m. (Screening)
10.00 – 12.00 (Seminar)
ORB_203
Carrigside3_G01
Seminar Content
This module examines Shakespeare – the plays and the man himself – on the small and big screen. To begin, we will
explore the complex relationship between the different media of film and playtext and consider key issues such as
language, genre, cinematic techniques and conventions, audience and reception, and the moment of the play’s and film’s
production. As numerous critics have observed, each generation remakes Shakespeare more or less in its own image. We
will therefore finish the module by examining screen portrayals of Shakespeare himself, the man who is considered to be,
as TV’s Doctor Who puts it, “the one true genius” whose works transcend time and space. In particular, we will analyse
constructions of Shakespeare as an author and authority; and, at a time when we increasingly hear of the ‘Shakespeare
industry’, the interrelated issues of his social, cultural, economic, and symbolic value will be a recurrent concern.
Primary texts/Required textbooks
Required textbook: Maurice Hindle’s Studying Shakespeare on Film (Palgrave, 2007). The newer, second edition (2015)
of this textbook is also acceptable and it comes with added material.
In addition, the mandatory reading includes three plays:
Romeo and Juliet; Henry V; Much Ado About Nothing
Any edition of these plays is suitable but all of them are available in Shakespeare, The Norton Shakespeare, ed. Stephen
Greenblatt et al. 3rd ed. New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2015.
Primary texts (screenings):
25
Henry V (Olivier, 1944)
Henry V (Branagh, 1989)
Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli, 1968)
William Shakespeare’s Romeo+Juliet (Luhrmann, 1996)
Much Ado About Nothing (Branagh, 1993)
BBC Shakespeare Retold: Much Ado About Nothing (2006)
Much Ado About Nothing (Whedon, 2012)
Shakespeare in Love (Madden, 1998)
Anonymous (Emmerich, 2011)
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module students will have:






gained a strong knowledge of the filmic afterlife of a range of Shakespearean plays
acquired a nuanced understanding of how appropriations of Shakespeare lay claim to, use, reproduce and debate
his cultural authority and value
developed a greater understanding of the complex relationship between playtext and film
an ability to identify and engage in key theoretical debates
enhanced their analytical and critical skills through class discussion and group work
produced critically-informed written and oral work on at least two films
Module Code
Seminar Code
Seminar Title
Seminar Leader
EN3007
MOD 3.18
Reading Elizabeth
Bowen
Dr Eibhear Walshe
Semester
Day
Time
Venue
2
Monday
5-7pm
ORB 1.65
Seminar Content
Elizabeth Bowen is one of the most important novelists of the twentieth century and this course will
chart her illuminating relationship with modernism, with the development of the novel and short
story form and also with the new Irish state from her perspective as an Anglo-Irish novelist. Our
studies will account for her short stories, her memoirs and her travel writing and provide an account
of her diverse and rich creative career.
Primary Texts
The House in Paris (London: Gollancz, 1935 ).
The Death of the Heart (London: Gollancz, 1938).
Bowen’s Court ( London: Longman, 1942).
Seven Winters: Memories of a Dublin Childhood (London: Longmans, 1943).
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The Demon Lover and Other Stories. (London: Cape, 1945).
The Heat of the Day (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949).
Eva Trout, or Changing Scenes, ( London: Jonathan Cape, 1969).
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:







Critically read and analyse a selection of Bowen texts
Relate the set texts to one another and to other Irish and English novels
Discuss the cultural and historical background which frames the development of Irish fiction
Define terms and concepts central to contemporary criticism
Apply these terms and concepts to the set texts
Participate in class and group discussions
Write clearly structured essays in correct Standard English that adhere to the School of
English style sheet
27