Department of
English
University College Dublin
Second Year
Course Booklet
2002 / 2003
Mode II
1
SECOND–YEAR ENGLISH 2002/3
Please read these notes carefully. If there is anything that is not clear to you do not hesitate
to ask a lecturer, tutor, or Head of Year about it. It is YOUR responsibility to be fully
acquainted with the challenges involved in moving from First Year into Second Year. If you
are a visiting student or one transferring from another university it is your responsibility to
make sure you know what the regulations are and what course requirements, tutorial
arrangements, essay assignments and examination procedures are in place for the year.
ERASMUS students must attend a special meeting which will explain requirements to them.
Likewise, JYA students from the USA should consult the co-ordinator.
Full details of courses and seminars on offer for Mode 2 students for the year 20022003 are included in this handbook. Please be sure you are completely familiar with
these details. Mode 1 students should consult the Mode 1 booklet.
Introduction
The transition from First-Year English at UCD to Second Year requires a little bit of
reflection. To a significant degree, First Year is a foundation year while Second and Third
Years should be thought of as progressively developing certain skills laid down in First Year
while introducing new material and new approaches to the study of English. The notion that
Second Year is an interlude between the rigours of First Year and the trials of Third Year is
no longer sustainable. Indeed, aggregation of marks between Second and Third Years is now
on offer, on a 30% - 70% basis, which means that a good Second-Year Mark will help to
raise the overall level of your B.A. degree and provide you with a basis of strength on which
to enter the final undergraduate year. Such aggregation will apply only if beneficial to the
student, who will receive either the combined 30% (Second Year) and 70% (Third Year)
marks or the complete Third-Year mark, whichever is the higher.
Please note: We expect all students to be fully committed, to do the work and to regard the
Second Year as an important step towards the completion of their degree.
In Second Year, Mode 2, you are required to attend three lecture-courses, one seminarcourse, and one tutorial, each week. Bear in mind that your attendance will be monitored
and that you can be barred from sitting your examinations if your attendance is not
satisfactory. So, if you have to take a job to help with finances during the year, ensure that
this does not endanger your attendance requirements.
You will be encountering seminar options in Second Year. You must attend and complete
the work for two seminars over the year, one in each semester. Elsewhere in this booklet you
will find a complete list of these Options, and you should make your choices during the first
week of term.
Choosing your options: Registration will take place on Monday 23 September in Room
J208 from 10 until 12 and 2 until 3 on a ‘first come first served’ basis.
The 'official' times, which will not clash with lecture times in other subjects, are: Mondays
at 4, Tuesdays at 9 and Fridays at 4. Some other times will also be available, for example,
Thursdays and Fridays at 1, Fridays at 10, 2 and 3. Check carefully that you have no clash of
timetable if you choose any of these.
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There is a generous number of seminars on offer and you should choose what you find
challenging as well as interesting. You should not choose two seminars from the same
general area, for example film studies or contemporary literature, but one from an early
period (before 1800) and one from a later. You should also avoid choosing all poetry or all
drama or all fiction, but try to set yourself a balanced diet. (In Third Year you will have the
opportunity to achieve further variety in seminars.)
You must bring a passport-sized photograph with you to registration, as well as your
student card. Write your name and student number on the back of your photograph.
Seminars begin on Monday 30 September, and run for nine weeks. The next seminars
begin after Christmas, on 6 January 2003.
Protocol
Do understand that when you sign on for a seminar you enter a contract: you agree to do the
reading each week, to participate in class discussions, and to do all you can to further the
success of the seminar. This contract subsists even when you haven’t obtained the seminar of
your choice. In essence, all of this comes down to attitude. If you are positive towards the
seminar you will want it to succeed and will work towards that end. But you must not expect
the seminar leader to give a lecture each time: that is not how it works. Neither is a seminar a
tutorial. The difference is partly the greater numbers in a seminar (up to 15) and partly the
greater responsibility on each member of the class to prepare something specific for each
session. The main thing to remember is that there are new skills to be learned and one of
these is better communication, which in this instance means better focus on issues and
problems. It is for you to ‘problematise’ a text under discussion, to find beforehand areas of
the text which should give rise to questioning and to raise such questions in an exploratory
way. It is time now to move beyond the “I like ... I hate” response to a text, as if the teacher
were responsible for defending if not for actually authoring the text. The approach now is a
common one, an entry to the text so that gradually there can be something like a consensus
about its value, meaning and/or significance as a piece of writing. This approach requires
patience, a living with awkward and perhaps even unpalatable elements in the text, and a
coming to the kinds of answers which do justice to the text according to clearly understood
aesthetic principles. But there may be no answers as such; there may be only a constant
friction with the text. It does not matter. So long as there is honest engagement with the text
there will be progress, even if that progress does not appear there and then. It will come later,
with more thought expended on the problem, and with more reading. A seminar is therefore
work in progress and its success depends on the willingness of those in it to take
responsibility.
Attendance is obligatory. A penalty of 10 marks will be levied if a student misses more than
three classes without a medical certificate or other valid documentation supplied to the
teacher (or, if required, to the Head of Year).
In Second-Year English you will have one tutorial a week. Six out of the nine tutorials
provided for each semester will be in Modern, three in Old and Middle English. You will not
change rooms for this tutorial but change tutors. The tutorial will focus on the core courses,
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for the purposes of practical criticism/critical analysis and short essays in comparative
criticism. There will be a special examination paper devoted to testing these skills
together with your ability to think laterally about texts (both Modern and within the
ambit of Old and Middle English), that is, to consider how issues and techniques have
been employed by diverse writers across wide stretches of literary history.
Tutorials:
In addition to what has been said above, it may be emphasised that the tutorial
in Second Year fulfils very special functions. The tutorials provide opportunities for the
student to bring to the tutor any questions or problems being experienced in the core courses,
but there is no purpose of ‘coverage’ of material in all the core courses. The tutorials will
assume that you are working on your own and will serve to focus discussion on matters
arising from the course work rather than seek to provide handy synopses or the like. You are
expected to work on your own
But perhaps the main function of the tutorial in Second Year, and this is why
attendance is vital, is to assist in the leap from First Year to more concentrated, investigative,
and analytical methods of studying English. In that sense, then, a tutorial is a kind of
workshop. You may be asked to write short trial pieces, short essays in practical criticism.
These will help you to develop certain valuable skills and you would be wise to regard them
as necessary exercises. It would be foolish not to avail of the tutorial as a special study aid.
The kind of work you are expected to produce in Second Year tends to be defined by what
goes on in tutorials. You should use them actively and with a positive outlook.
Tutorial Registration: Wednesday 25th September, Room J207, 10 am – 1 pm.
Tutorials begin the week of 30 September, and resume in second semester on 20
January.
Essays: Two essays are due, one for each seminar. (Mode 1 students will have five essays:
see separate booklet for details.) Each essay (one in each semester) should be 3,000 words
in length and should follow the style sheet provided by the department (see back of booklet).
Note that a total of 250 marks is available for these essays in the continuous assessment
process. This figure represents one-third of the marks given for examinations (750), so the
essays are vital.
The due dates for submission of these essays are:
Essay 1 (first semester): Monday 16 December 2002
Essay 2 (second semester): Monday 10 March 2003
Note: These dates are out of term.
Submission by registered post is acceptable if postmark shows correct date.
Regulations:
 You must ensure that you get your essays in on time, i.e by 4.30 p.m. to room J201 on the
due date, or marks will be deducted as follows:
10 marks during the first week an essay is late (Monday to Friday),
20 marks during the second week an essay is late,
30 marks (maximum) before the end of the year (17 April 2003),
50 marks after 17 April.
Essays cannot be accepted once examinations begin on 28 April 2003.
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 In general, only a relevant medical certificate or verifiable personal excuse will be an
acceptable basis for an extended deadline.
 You must complete a ‘Cover Sheet’ for each essay, and ensure that this is date stamped
upon submission.
 Plagiarism, the appropriation of material without quotation marks or without proper
acknowledgement of the source, is likely to result in a mark of zero. Remember,
plagiarism is a serious offence.
 Essays should be typed, where possible (and where not possible must be legibly written
on one side only of each page).
 Essays should always cite references and supply a bibliography or list of ‘works cited’.
The style sheet should be obeyed.
Hints for essay writing
Together with the critical analysis required for tutorials, the kind of essay required in Second
Year is a well-planned, well-organised exploration of some selected topic, as agreed with
your seminar leader. The bases of the essay should be analysis and argument, not paraphrase
or plot summary, with examples carefully chosen to back up your argument. Sweeping
generalisations should be avoided. Instead, you should attempt to develop a logical argument
by using specific evidence or examples drawn from a textual base. Further, it is not a good
idea to load an essay with lengthy quotations from ‘experts’, as if their views represented the
last word on the issue. This is a lazy way to write. You must grapple with the problems
raised by the essay topic and where you use ‘experts’ you should enter into dialogue with
them and seek to assimilate their views in an argumentative spirit. Second Year offers the
opportunity to develop new and necessary skills in a more speculative type of essay. You
will receive all the help and advice you need to do this, in tutorials and in seminars, but the
other side of the coin reads: sloppy work will be severely punished.
Problems:
In the nature of things, there will be problems. The one thing you must not
do is run away from them. There is help all around you, for the English Department has a
reputation for being friendly and concerned. Look to your tutor as the first person on whom
to call if you are in difficulty of any kind. If there is a problem with your seminar, talk to the
leader after class or make an appointment to see her or him. You might find yourself in a
situation where you feel stressed. Well, that too is part of university life, but it doesn’t mean
you have to suffer through the whole year. Talk to someone. The Head of Year is there for
that purpose. In Modern English her name is Dr Anne Fogarty and her room number
is J211. Her telephone number is 716 8159. You may also contact those working with Dr.
Fogarty this year: Mr Brian Donnelly, Room J214, Tel. 716 8160 and Dr. Eldrid Herrington,
Room C209, Tel. 716 8622. In Old and Middle English the Head of Year is Professor
T. P. Dolan, whose room number is J215. His telephone number is 716 8156.
Final Comments: Acquaint yourself also with the staff-student committee (or better
still, volunteer to be a class rep.) and watch out for the news and notices emerging from that
body, which meets a couple of times each semester. If you have a specific problem with the
year’s work or courses why not bring it to the class rep?
Always keep your eye on the Second-Year notice board for communications of various
kinds throughout the year. You should note that information about examinations, layout of
papers, etc, will be posted here. Remember, it is your responsibility to make yourself aware
of such information. If in doubt about any notice you read on the notice board ask for
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clarification at the Departmental Office (J206, telephone 716 8323 or 716 8157 or 716
8480). Website address www.ucd.ie.
The Head of the Combined Departments of English for the academic session 2002/2003
is Professor Mary Clayton, Professor of Old and Middle English.
The Head of the Old and Middle English Department is Professor Mary Clayton,
Room J205, Tel. 716 8251.
Administrator: Pauline Slattery, Phone 716 8157, Room J206 (a.m. only)
The Head of the Department of Modern English and American Literature is
Professor James Mays, Room J202, Tel. 716 8346.
Administrator: Lena Doherty, Phone 716 8323, Room J206.
Administrator: Marguerite Duggan, Phone 716 8157, Room J206 (p.m. only)
The Head of the Department of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama is
Professor Declan Kiberd (on leave from January 2003), Room J203, Tel. 716 8348.
Administrator: Helen Gallagher, Phone 716 8480, Room J206.
The staff and faculty in Second-Year English welcome you most warmly and hope you have
a happy, fruitful year working with us.
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Lecture Schedule
Second Year 2002-2003
Term begins 16 September 2002
FIRST SEMESTER
Early Modern Literature: Licence, Play and Power
(ENG 2003)
Lecturers: Dr. Janet Clare and Dr. Jerome de Groot
Mondays
12 noon
Theatre L
This course will develop students’ understanding of the culture of the Renaissance. As the
first year course demonstrated, early modern literature drew inspiration from the revival of
classical learning and from the literary forms of continental Europe. But this was also a
period in which represented authority was challenged and resisted. Popular initiatives in
drama and prose subverted social norms and questioned established ideologies. Women
writers, employing different material practices and aesthetic strategies, brought new
perspectives to dominant ideas of gender. This course aims to examine the relationships
between authority and subversion by looking at selected early modern texts, concepts and
locations (the theatre, ideal spaces, the street). Students will be introduced to key ideas
relating to the links between high and low culture, the oral and the written, the medieval and
the modern, ritual and Reformation, alongside an introduction to some key concepts:
carnival, parody, humanism, rhetoric, and ideas about the body. Students will be expected to
be able to make connections between the texts on the course and relate them to the secondary
reading.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Sir Thomas More, Utopia (Penguin)
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (Arden or any good edition)
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cambridge)
Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ed. Suzanne Gossett (Manchester UP)
Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller and other Works, ed. J.B.Steane (Penguin)
Ballads and satires (course materials provided).
MODERN ENGLISH: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
(ENG 2004)
Lecturers: Dr Eldrid Herrington and Professor James Mays
Wednesdays
2 pm
Theatre L
Your aim should be: to know something about Romantic writers, at least those in the
anthology and a few others—how their writing works, what there was to be excited about,
how understanding is mediated by ideology. This last matter involves, among other things:
the formation of and debate over a Romantic Period canon; questions of influence and
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intertextuality within generations of writers; gender issues; and the relation of art to history
and politics.
All poems are to be found in volume II of the Norton Anthology of English Literature (2000;
7th edition).
1 ROMANTICISM AS SITE AND IDEOLOGY (Prof Mays)
Victorian Construction and Postmodern Deconstruction (Arnold and Eliot, Wellek
and Hartman, Abrams and McGann)
2 ‘THE PICTURE OF THE MIND’: WORDSWORTH AND MEMORY (Dr Herrington)
William Wordsworth, ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, 1802’ and ‘Tintern
Abbey’
3 WORDSWORTH AND THE NEW SCHOOL (Prof Mays)
quatrain poems from Lyrical Ballads and Lucy poems; also ‘Resolution and
Independence’, ‘Michael’, ‘Tintern Abbey’, ‘Intimations Ode’
4 THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER (Dr Herrington)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
5 THE GREATER ROMANTIC LYRIC (Prof Mays)
Coleridge’s ‘Aeolian Harp’, ‘Lime-Tree Bower’, ‘Frost at Midnight’; Wordsworth’s
‘Tintern Abbey’, ‘Intimation Ode’, ‘Michael’; Keats’s ‘Nightingale’, ‘Grecian Urn’,
‘Autumn’; Shelley’s ‘West Wind’, ‘Skylark’
6 CANT V C*NT (Dr Herrington)
George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Cantos I and II only
7 SENSIBILITY AND GENDER (Prof Mays)
The debate about women’s education using selections from Wollstonecraft’s Rights
of Women, Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journals; references to Charlotte Smith, Felicia
Hemens, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley
8 ‘SOCIAL LONELINESS’ (Dr Herrington)
John Clare, ‘I am’, ‘Pastoral Poesy’, ‘Mouse’s Nest’, ‘The Nightingale’s Nest’, ‘The
Peasant Poet’
9 ROMANTICISING JOHN KEATS (Prof Mays)
‘Grecian Urn’, ‘Nightingale’, ‘Autumn’
10 KEATS’S READING (Dr Herrington)
John Keats, ‘On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer’, ‘On Sitting Down to Read
King Lear Once Again’, ‘The Eve of St Agnes’, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’
11 CONCLUSION (Dr Herrington)
Secondary Reading
Abrams, M. H. The Mirror and the Lamp (1953)
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———. Romantic Supernaturalism (1971)
———. The Correspondent Breeze (1984)
Bromwich, David. Disowned by Memory: Wordsworth's Poetry of the 1790s (1998)
Butler, Marilyn. Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries (1981)
Chase, Cynthia, ed. Romanticism (1993)
Curran, Stuart, ed. Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism (1993)
Dabundo, Laura, ed. Encyclopedia of Romanticism: Culture in Britain, 1780s-1830s (1992)
Favret, Mary, ed. At the Limits of Romanticism (1994)
Hartman, Geoffrey. Wordsworth’s Poetry, 1787-1814 (1964; 1971)
Kroeber, Karl, ed. Romantic Poetry: Recent Revisionary Criticism (1993)
McGann, Jerome. The Romantic Ideology (1983)
———. The Poetics of Sensibility: A Revolution in Literary Style (1996)
McGann, Jerome, ed. The New Oxford Book of Romantic Period Verse (1993)
Mellor, Anne, ed. Romanticism and Feminism (1988)
Perry, Seamus. Coleridge and the Uses of Division (1999)
Prickett, Stephen. Wordsworth and Coleridge: 'The Lyrical Ballads' (1975)
Wu, Duncan. A Companion to Romanticism (1998)
THE CANTERBURY TALES
(ENG 2001)
Lecturers: Prof. P Lucas, Prof. T.P. Dolan, Prof. M. Clayton, Dr. M. Robson,
Dr A. Fletcher
Thursdays
9.00 am
Theatre M
The Canterbury Tales is probably the most famous work of Middle English literature, but it
remains a complex, controversial and infinitely fascinating text - or collection or texts.
Students will be invited to make detailed critical studies of individual Tales, to make
comparisons and contrasts between them, and/or to consider the scope and effect of the Tales
as a whole. There will be lectures on the Tales (and Prologues) of the Wife of Bath and the
Pardoner - two of Chaucer's most grotesquely memorably characters - the Merchant and the
Nun's Priest - who tell very different comic stories - and the Clerk and the Franklin - in
which Chaucer explores (or pretends to explore) some apparently idealized relationships
between men and women.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
The Canterbury Tales, (Riverside edition)
OR
The Norton Critical edition of The Canterbury Tales Nine Tales and the General Prologue,
ed. V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson
September 19
September 26
Introductory Lecture
The Wife of Bath
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Dr Robson
Dr Robson
October 3,10
October 17, 24
November 7
November 14,21
November 28
December 5
The Merchant's Tale
The Franklin's Tale
The Clerk's Tale
The Pardoner's Tale
The Nun's Priest's Tale
Concluding Lecture
Dr Robson
Prof Lucas
Prof Clayton
Dr Fletcher
Dr Robson
Prof Dolan
READING WEEK: OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 1, 2002, INCLUSIVE.
LECTURES, SEMINARS AND TUTORIALS WILL NOT BE HELD DURING THIS WEEK.
TERM DATES:
16 SEPT – 6 DEC 2002
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SECOND SEMESTER
6 January 2003 - 17 April 2003
Term Break 2 March - 23 March
(Term dates: 6 January – 1 March 2003
24 March – 17 April 2003)
AN INTRODUCTION TO OLD ENGLISH
(ENG 2002)
Lecturers: Professor Clayton, Professor Lucas, Dr. Robson
Mondays
12 noon
Theatre L
The first part of this course offers an introduction to Old English language, aimed at giving a
basic competence in reading Old English. We will then look at three texts: an extract from
Apollonius of Tyre, a romantic tale of shipwreck and love, the Wife’s Lament, a lyric poem
about the desolation of a woman in exile, and some Old English riddles.
Jan. 6, 13, 20, 27, Feb. 3
Feb. 10, 17
Feb. 24, Mar.24
Mar. 31, Apr.7
Old English Grammar
Apollonius of Tyre
Old English Riddles
Wife’s Lament
Prof Clayton
Prof Clayton
Dr. Robson
Prof. Lucas
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Texts will be provided on handouts and made available in the Students' Union for copying.
ANGLO-IRISH LITERATURE: EXCAVATING THE PRESENT
(ENG 2006)
Lecturers: Dr Catriona Clutterbuck, Dr Anthony Roche
Wednesdays
2.00 pm
Theatre L
This course examines how a series of key contemporary Irish texts interrogates the uses of
the past in the construction of present-day national, regional, gendered, familial, personal
and artistic identities. The theme of tension between these identities is central to the texts.
The post-colonial condition, which forms a vital backdrop to understanding contemporary
Irish writing, will itself be examined through the lens of alternative frameworks of
interpretation, especially those enabled by feminist theory. The value of literature in
contexts of cultural and political conflict will be an important focus of exploration in this
lecture series.
(N.B. End-of-year examinations will be based on the assumption that all five texts are
read in full by students)
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REQUIRED TEXTS:
Boland, Eavan, Outside History, (Carcanet, 1990)
Devlin, Anne, After Easter, (Faber, 1994)
Heaney, Seamus, North (Faber, 1975)
McCabe, Patrick, The Butcher Boy, (Pan Macmillan, 1992)
McGahern, John, Amongst Women, (Faber, 1990)
A number of key articles will also be made available to students.
THE LITERATURE OF EXTREMITY: AMERICAN WRITING AFTER 1945
(ENG 2005)
Names of Lecturers to follow.
Thursdays
9.00 am
Theatre M
This lecture course seeks to introduce students to American writing after the Second World
War. On the surface of things, the immediate post-war period represented a time of material
plenty and social stability. However this ‘official’ emphasis on traditional values of family
and domesticity, backed up by rapid economic growth and a new culture of consumption,
often provoked an undercurrent of anxiety and entrapment in the nation’s writers. The works
on this course often depict moments of crisis, instances of emotional failure, and a general
disquiet with an America rapidly assuming superpower status. Writing after the extremes of
the holocaust and Hiroshima, many of these writers describe a country ill at ease with itself,
trying to make sense of its post-war, cold-war position in the world.
PRIMARY READING LIST:
(PROVISIONAL: THIS LIST MAY BE MODIFIED AFTER SEPTEMBER 2002.
PLEASE CONSULT NOTICEBOARD).
Flannery O’Connor, The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor (Faber and Faber, 2000)
Walter Moseley, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) (Serpent’s Tail, 1991)
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) (Vintage, 1996)
Robert Lowell, Life Studies (1959) (Faber and Faber, 2001)
J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) (Penguin, 1994)
Saul Bellow, Seize the Day (1956) (Penguin, 2001)
Philip Roth, American Pastoral (1997) (Vintage, 1998)
Students will also need The Norton Anthology of Poetry. They should already have this from
first year.
SUMMER EXAMINATIONS: 28 APRIL (PROVISIONAL)
AUTUMN EXAMINATIONS: 11 AUGUST (PROVISIONAL)
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SEMINARS
NOTE:
It will not be possible to give every student her or his firstpreference options, because of the numbers taking Second-Year
English.
When registering, it more than likely will be necessary for you to
keep choosing from the list of seminars until you get a vacancy.
Seminars will be allocated on a ‘first come first served’ basis.
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Second-Year Seminars (Mode 2)
First Semester
(ENG 2008)
Choose one, as available
SEMINAR LEADER
SEMINAR TITLE
Dr Barrett
Dr Barrett
Dr Brannigan
Mr Byrne
Stage Speech *
Shakespeare's Stagecraft *
Brendan Behan
Dr Callan
Prof Carpenter
Dr Clare
DAY AND TIME
ROOM
Monday, 4pm
Friday, 4pm
Thursday, 1pm
Monday, 4pm
J207
J207
J208
F106
Early American Writing
Readings in 17th C. English Poetry *
Hamlet and Revenge Tragedy *
Monday, 4pm
Monday, 4pm
Thursday, 1pm
D112
J112
D112
Prof Clayton
Prof Clayton
Dr de Groot
Prof Dolan
Dr Fogarty
Dr Herrington
Prof. Kiberd
Dr Killeen
Prof. Lucas
Prof. Mays
Dr Meaney
Medieval Fabliaux*
Medieval Fabliaux*
Contemporary Women Writers
Humour: Medieval to Modern
Gothic Fiction
Walt Whitman
Joyce's Ulysses *
Children's Literature*
Old English for Beginners
William Blake
Monstrous Speculations
Tuesday, 9 am
Friday, 10 am
Tuesday, 9am
Thursday, 1pm
Tuesday, 9am
Monday, 4pm
Monday, 4pm
Tuesday, 9am
Thursday,1pm
Thursday,1pm
Friday, 10am
Ms O'Neill
Ms O' Neill
Dr Robson
Dr Sheppard
Ms Stierle
A.N. Other
Romance and Lai
Romance and Lai
The Arthurian Tradition
Shakespeare, Comedy and Film
Gender Roles in Contemporary Film
To be announced
Monday, 4pm
Friday, 10am
Friday, 10am
Friday, 4pm
Monday, 4pm
Monday, 4 pm
J114
J110
J112
J112
J207
J110
E106
J208
D108
J110
Arts
Annexe
F101A
J112
J208
J208
J208
F106
Fight for the Right to be Black: The
Struggle for African American Identity
* Offered in the First Semester only.
Note:
First Semester seminars begin week of Monday 30 September.
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Second-Year Seminars (Mode 2)
Second Semester
(ENG 2009)
Choose one, as available
SEMINAR LEADER
SEMINAR TITLE
Dr Brannigan
Mr. Byrne
Brendan Behan
Dr Callan
Prof. Carpenter
Dr de Groot
Prof. Dolan
Mr Donnelly
Dr Fletcher
Dr Fogarty
Dr Herrington
Prof. Lucas
Prof. Mays
Dr Meaney
Ms O' Neill
Dr Robson
Dr Roche
Dr Roche
Dr Sheppard
Ms Stierle
Dr. Stuart
A.N. Other
DAY AND TIME
ROOM
Thursday, 1pm
Monday, 4 pm
J208
F106
Early American Writing
Gulliver's Travels *
Contemporary Women Writers
Humour: Medieval to Modern
Poetry in English*
Gothic & Gothick*
Gothic Fiction
Walt Whitman
Old English for Beginners
William Blake
Monstrous Speculations
Monday, 4pm
Monday, 4pm
Tuesday, 9am
Thursday, 1pm
Friday, 2pm
Monday, 4pm
Thursday, 1pm
Monday, 4pm
Thursday, 1pm
Thursday, 1pm
Friday, 10am
Romance and Lai
The Arthurian Tradition
Joyce's Ulysses *
Joyce's Ulysses *
Shakespeare, Comedy and Film
Gender Roles in Contemporary Film
Emily Dickinson*
To be announced.
Monday, 4pm
Friday, 10am
Thursday, 1pm
Friday, 2pm
Friday, 10am
Monday, 4pm
Friday, 1pm
Monday, 4 pm
D112
J112
J112
J112
J104
J114
J207
J110
D108
J110
Arts
Annexe
F101A
J208
J114
J114
J207
J208
F101A
F106
Fight for the Right to be Black: The
Struggle for African American Identity
*Offered in the Second Semester only.
Note:
Second Semester seminars begin Monday 6 January.
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Seminar Descriptions and Booklists
Stage Speech (First Semester only)
Dr John Barrett
Monday 4pm
This option explores the strengths and limitations of dramatic, as opposed to narrative,
writing. It examines such conventions as Direct Address, Soliloquy, the Alter Ego
device, Single Narrator, Multiple Narrators etc.
Required Reading:
Eugene O’Neill Strange Interlude. (Nick Hern)
Sarah Daniels: Beside Herself (Methuen)
Peter Nichols: Passion Play. (Methuen)
Edward Albee: Three Tall Women (Penguin)
Brian Friel: Plays : 1 (Faber)
Brian Friel: Plays: 2 (Faber)
Shakespeare's Stagecraft (First Semester only)
Dr John Barrett
Friday 4pm
This option will explore, in the first place, the physical conditions of Shakespeare's Globe
Theatre and examine the ways in which it determines his stagecraft. We will see how
Shakespeare manages his scenes, in terms of length and location, and in the same context
examine the technical demands of exits and entrances, opening and closing of scenes, the
management of props etc.
We will then focus on how these and other factors present challenges to contemporary
directors of Shakespeare and discuss how these challenges can be met.
Texts: King Lear
Hamlet
Othello
Macbeth
The Merchant of Venice
The New Arden editions are preferable, with the exception of Hamlet,where the New
Cambridge edition (ed.Philip Edwards) is recommended.
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Brendan Behan
Dr John Brannigan
Thursday 1pm
Brendan Behan is a controversial figure in Irish Literary history, more renowned for his
stage- Irish antics and his patronage of Dublin's pub culture than for his writings. This
course aims to examine, in the sobering light of day, the nature of Behan's literary legacy. It
will assess Behan's formal experiments with dramatic structure, short fiction, the
autobiographical novel, and the anecdotal sketch. The course will explore Behan's oeuvre
for his representations of mid-twentieth-century Ireland, his engagement with cultural
nationalism (particularly of the revival period), and his flirtation with dissident social, sexual
and political identities.
Course Texts:
Brendan Behan
The Complete Plays (Methuen)
Borstal Boy (Arrow)
After the Wake (O' Brien)
The Dubbalin Man (Farmar)
Recommended Reading:
Boyle, Ted
Brendan Behan (Twayne)
Brannigan, John
Brendan Behan: Cultural Nationalism and the Revisionist Writer
(Four Courts)
Brown, Terence
Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922-1985 (Fontana)
Kearney, Colbert
The Writings of Brendan Behan (St Martin's Press)
Kiberd, Declan
Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation (Jonathan
Cape)
Murray, Christopher Twentieth-Century Irish Drama (Manchester UP)
O' Connor, Ulick
Brendan Behan (Abacus)
O' Sullivan, Michael Brendan Behan: A Life (Blackwater)
Roche, Anthony
Contemporary Irish Drama: From Beckett to McGuinness (Gill and
Macmillan)
Fight for the Right to be Black: The Struggle for African American Identity
Mr James Byrne
Monday 4 pm
This course seeks to investigate on three separate levels – the physical, the aesthetical, and
the polemical – the African American transition from slave to citizen. That this has not been
an easy transition is an obvious understatement and so, in the quest to come to understand
the depth of struggle, suffering and conviction it took to achieve this goal (some would argue
that this goal has not yet been achieved), this course struggles to understand the courage of
body, spirit and mind needed to take up this quest form three different yet similarly harsh
roads towards the one goal – equality.
17
Required reading:
David Remnick, King of the World
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Arthur Hailey, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Early American Writing
Dr Ron Callan
Monday 4pm
This course begins by examining some of the writing which reflected American experiences
before "The Great Republic" came into being. Our texts will range from Puritan to Native
American accounts of America, and from black writing to expressions of hope for a new
nation. We will consider a range of views which together express the diversity of what was
to become the United States of America. The course will include a good deal of material
which is not considered literature. We will read autobiographies, journals, letters, sermons
and transcriptions and translations of oral tales together with a range of early American
poetry.
Students will be encouraged to participate in class discussions, and to develop their interests
within the terms of the course.
Required Reading:
Nina Baym et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 5th ed., Vol. I.
London: Norton, 1998.
Please note: The Norton was the text for "The American Renaissance" course in First
Year English.
*Additional reading will be assigned in class.
Readings in seventeenth-century English poetry:
The Metaphysicals and their contemporaries.
Prof. Andrew Carpenter (First Semester only)
Monday 4pm
This course will cover in detail the poetry of Donne, Herbert, Marvell and other
metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as some of the work of their
contemporaries, Jonson, the cavalier poets and the young Milton. Attention will also be paid
to the intellectual, literary, social and political background to the poetry we shall be
studying.
Required reading: The Norton Anthology of Poetry (4th ed.).
18
Other recommended or required texts may be downloaded from Literature Online (LION) on
the UCD website.
Gulliver's Travels
Prof. Andrew Carpenter (Second Semester only)
Monday 4pm
A close reading of one of the key text of the eighteenth century, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's
Travels. Students will be able to explore specific aspects of the text which interest them
from early on in the course.
Required reading: Any modern paperback text of Gulliver's Travels, provided it is
unabridged and unexpurgated. Acceptable editions include Penguin Popular Classics and
Everyman
Hamlet and Renaissance Revenge Tragedy
Dr Janet Clare (First Semester only)
Thursday 1pm
‘A kind of wild justice’ was how Francis Bacon described revenge in his essay on that
subject published in 1597. Revenge – regarded by the legislator as anti-social; by the
moralist as barvaric and by the theologian as a sin – is recognised as a widespread instinct
and deeply rooted in human nature. From Greek drama onwards revenge has powerfully
figured as both a motive for action and a motif of tragedy. Dramatic perspectives on revenge
have been guided by the cultural context. This course will examine the representation of
revenbe in the theatre of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The enactment of revenge
made effective theatre in a period accustomed to gruesome spectacle. Are revenge tragedies
then merely sensational? We will explore the moral and socio-political issues raised in the
plays and questions relating to revenge and honour, the woman’s part, and revenge and
subjectivity.
Required Reading
William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, edited Jonathan Bate (Arden Shakespeare)
Hamlet, edited T.J.B. Spencer (Penguin Shakespeare)
Four Revenge Tragedies, edited by Katherine Eisaman Maus (World Classics)
John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, edited John Russell Brown (Student Revels)
19
Medieval Fabliaux
Professor Mary Clayton
Friday 10 am
Fabliaux are comic tales in verse, set in the contemporary everyday world, rather than the
aristocratic world or romance, with plots that generally involve some sort of trickery, often
motivated by sexual desire. Very popular in France and Italy, the genre was taken up in
English primarily by Chaucer. This seminar will concentrate on the fabliaux which form
part of the Canterbury Tales and will consider issues of gender and class.
Note: All students should possess the Riverside Chaucer for this course.
Contemporary Women Writers
Dr de Groot
Tuesday 9am
This seminar will introduce students to the works of several important contemporary female
authors. The seminars will consider issues of genre, style, narrative, gender and politics as
well as exploring the novels using elements of postcolonial, postmodernist and feminist
theory.
Texts:
Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace (Virago, 1997)
Angela Carter, Wise Children (Vintage, 1992)
A.L. Kennedy, Now That You’re Back (Vintage, 1995)
Toni Morrison, Beloved (Vintage, 1997)
Jeannette Winterson, The Passion (Vintage, 1996)
20
Humour: Medieval to Modern
Professor Dolan
Thursday 1pm
This course discusses the theory of comedy, taking Geoffrey Chaucer’s humour as its
starting point. It considers the element of subversion in humour, as well as its cruelty, and
by studying a selection of writings from Chaucer to the present it seeks to identify the
permanent elements in comedy, as distinct from those which change or disappear according
to fashion and taste.
Recommended:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Nash, Walter, The Language of Humour: Style and Technique in Comic Discourse,
1985.
Chapman and Foot (eds.), Humor and Laughter. Theory, Research and Applications,
1996.
Rodway, Allan, English Comedy: Its Role and Nature from Chaucer to the Present
Day, 1975.
Steadman, John M., Disembodied Laughter, 1972.
Jost, J. (ed.), Chaucer’s Humor, Critical Essays, 1994.
Poetry in English - 17th Century until the Present
Mr Brian Donnelly (Second Semester only)
Friday 2pm
Readings in selected poems by Irish, British, American and Commonwealth writers.
Emphasis will be placed upon the relationships between tradition, form and the individual
talent. The development of the skills of close, careful, critical analysis of the texts will be a
major aim of this seminar.
Required Text:
The Norton Anthology of Poetry, ed. Margaret Ferguson et al.
with additional material from The Norton Anthology of English Literature,
Volume I, ed. M.H. Abrams et al.
21
Gothic and Gothick
Dr. Alan Fletcher
Monday 4pm
This course will examine how medieval culture was perceived in English literature between
the late-eighteenth and the twentieth centuries, and the purposes for which that culture was
exploited.
Set prose texts are:
Montague Rhodes James, Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories, Oxford World
Classics, ISBN 019-283773-7.
Short stories for special attention are ' Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to you, My Lad', 'Casting
the Runes'. And 'The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral'.
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, In a Glass Darkly, Oxford World Classics, ISBN 019-283947-0.
Short stories for special attention are: ' Carmilla' and 'Green Tea'.
Matthew Lewis, The Monk
This is available in Four Gothic Novels, Oxford World Classics, ISBN 019-282331-0.
Edgar Allen Poe, Selected Tales, Oxford World Classics, ISBN 019-283224-7.
Short stories for special attention are: 'Masque of the Red Death', 'The Fall of the House of
Usher', ' Ligeia', and ' The Pit and the Pendulum'.
Set verse texts, which will be circulated in class, are:
John Keats, 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' and 'The Eve of St Agnes'.
Edgar Allen Poe, 'The Bells', 'The Conqueror Worm', 'The Raven'.
Alfred Lord Tennyson, 'The Mariana', 'Godiva', and 'The Lady of Shalott'.
Criticism
Since this course intends that you think for yourself and evolve your own opinions about the
issues that will be raised, a long list of secondary critical writing may be a hindrance.
However, one prompt to your further critical reflection that you may consider reading is Fred
Botting, Gothic (London: Routledge, 1996). Also, since the course will be encouraging you
to read the set texts inventively, you might find Martin Montgomery, et al., Ways of
Reading, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2000), a useful introduction to just a few of the many
different ways in which a text can be approached.
22
Gothic Fiction
Dr. Anne Fogarty
Tuesday 9am (First Semester)
Thursday 1 pm (Second Semester)
The concept of the gothic has become increasingly contested. This course sets out to explore
the variable histories of this genre and to consider the extent to which this mode breaks
down boundaries between high and popular culture. The depiction of ambivalent sexualities
in Gothic fictions will be examines as portrayal of domestic spaces. Various sub-forms of
this genre will be studied including Irish Gothic narratives, vampire tales, horror stories and
the feminine gothic. Screenings of some classic horror movies, including The Haunting
(Robert Wise, 1963 ) in conjunction with this course.
Texts:
Shirley Jackson. The Haunting. Penguin, 1999.
Stephen Jones, ed. The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women.
Mammoth, 2001.
J. Sheridan LeFanu. In a Glass Darkly. Oxford, 1993.
--- . Uncle Silas. Penguin, 2002.
Ann Radcliffe. The Romance of the Forest. Oxford, 1999.
Bram Stoker. Dracula. (Any edition).
Horace Walpole. The Castle of Otranto. Oxford, 1998.
Secondary Reading:
Elisabeth Bronfen. Over Her Dead Body: Death, Feminity and the Aesthetic. (Manchester
UP, 1992).
Sigmund Freud. "The Uncanny". Pelican Freud, Volume 14.
(Penguin, 1985).
Joseph Valente. Dracula's Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness and the Question of Blood. (U of
Ilinois P, 2001).
Walt Whitman
Dr Eldrid Herrington
Monday 4pm
This seminar will examine Whitman's writings, from the revolutionary edition of Leaves of
Grass in 1855 through to the 'deathbed' edition of his poems in 1892. Seminars will follow
the innovations and opportunities his works presented to 19th-century American
consciousness, from the technical achievements of his 'free verse' style to his considerations
of contemporary cultural developments such as baseball. Whitman was one of the first
writers to aestheticize the city; one seminar will be devoted to his treatment of New York.
Leaves of Grass was constantly under scrutiny or censure for its explicit presentation of sex;
we will discuss contemporary responses to Children of Adam. By contrast, his treatment of
23
homosexuality was admired by many: we will also look at contemporary writers' responses
to the Calamus 'sonnet' series. Whitman's Civil War writings, Drum-Taps (1865) and
Specimen Days (1882) are some of the finest writing on war; these texts will be examined by
looking at the role of the photograph in his work and his involvement with Matthew Brady
and Alexander Gardner (portraitists and documenters of the conflict). A consideration of the
role of the photograph in 19th-century American culture will lead us to think about the larger
questions of 19th-century constructions of selfhood, a subject which implicitly underpins the
entire seminar. The last session will be devoted to a brief examination of Whitman's
extensive influence in 20th-century literature-from the Modernists to the Beats to
postmodern poets and novelists.
Required Text: Whitman, Walt. Complete Poetry and Selected Prose. Ed. James E. Miller,
Jr. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959.
Ulysses
Professor Declan Kiberd (First Semester Only)
Monday 4pm
James Joyce’s masterpiece headed all recent lists on both sides of the Atlantic as the “book
of the twentieth century”. This course will pursue a chapter-by-chapter reading, guiding
students through its complexities and answering at least some of its challenges. Certain
questions will recur: Joyce's use of epic modes; his sense of Dublin as an intimate city; his
attitude to the past, to nationalism and to religion; his revolutionary use of new forms and
styles, not least interior monologue; the role of the ‘heroic’ reader in decoding the text; the
mixture of high art and popular culture. In the course of our work, we shall try to define just
what it is that makes Ulysses the central exhibit in the story of Irish modernism, while also
registering its influence on European and post-colonial writers.
Essential Text:
The Student’s Annotated Ulysses, ed. Declan Kiberd, Penguin Twentieth Century Classics.
Recommended Reading:
Stuart Gilbert, James Joyce’s Ulysses
Frank Budgen, James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses
Emer Nolan, James Joyce and Nationalism
Hugh Kenner, Ulysses
Richard Ellmann, James Joyce
Ulysses on the Liffey
24
Children’s Literature
Dr Jarlath Killeen (First Semester only)
Tuesday 9am
This course is designed to facilitate an examination of the issues surrounding the academic
study of children’s literature, and its relation to the ‘adult’ canon. We will be considering the
various novels as individual texts but also as comprising a possible ‘recommended reading
list’ for children. We will be thinking about how children’s literature is defined, its relation
to the various cultural and intellectual environments in which it is produced, the problem of
the supposed didactic nature of writings produced specifically for children, and the
relationship between children’s literature and other literary genres such as fairy-tale,
bildungsroman, satire, etc. Students will be expected to give short presentations.
1. Carroll, Lewis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; and Through the Looking-Glass,
and What Alice Found There, edited by Roger Lancelyn Green, (Oxford: Oxford
World’s Classics, 2000).
2. Alcott, Louisa May, Little Women, edited by Elaine Showalter, (London: Penguin
Classics, 1992).
3. MacDonald, George, The Princess and the Goblin, (any unabridged edition).
4. Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, edited by Lee Clark Mitchell,
(Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 1998).
5. Sewell, Anna, Black Beauty, (any unabridged edition).
6. Wilde, Oscar, Complete Short Fiction, edited by Ian Small, (London: Penguin
Classics, 1994).
7. Baum, L. Frank, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, edited by Susan Wolstenholme,
(Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2000).
8. Blyton, Enid, The Adventures of the Wishing Chair, (any unabridged edition).
Old English Poetry for Beginners
Professor Lucas
Thursday 1pm
This course assumes no previous knowledge of Old English Poetry. It seeks to introduce
students to the context, form and content of Old English poetry, and aims to enable students
to read and understand some short passages in the original language.
25
Textbook:
Mitchell, Bruce, An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1995, or latest edition).
William Blake
Professor James Mays
Thursday 1pm
The status of William Blake (1757-1827) is still not agreed upon. Was he a prophet or a
madman? Should he be approached primarily as a visual artist or a writer? What do poems
apparently as simple as "Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright" actually mean? How did his handmade books, which he produced in only handfuls of copies, come to be so influential? How
has his status changed during the critical debates of the past thirty years?
The course will begin with readings of Blake's lyric poems, concentrating on Songs of
Innocence and of Experience, and follow his progression to the construction of mythic
narratives. It will look at his relation to surrounding intellectual movements and political
events (Sensibility, Enlightenment, Romanticism; American and French Revolutions), the
interplay between word and image in his illustrated books, the curious emergence of his
reputation -- among other things. Blake's writing makes unusual claims and commands a
particular kind of authority.
Required text: The Complete Writings of William Blake, ed Geoffrey Keynes (Oxford
University Press Paperback).
Monstrous Speculations: Film and the Gothic
Dr Gerardine Meaney
Friday 10am
Film Screenings: Mondays, 5pm.
(Arts Annex, located behind car-park 5)
This course examines the historical evolution of the major non-realistic genres of the novel,
film and television narrative. Tracing the persistence of gothic genres inherited from the
eighteenth century, it examines the influence of key mythic and fictional configurations and
the ways in which their significance changes over time.
26
The course will draw upon genre, postcolonial and feminist criticism and psychoanalytic
readings of gothic, horror and science fiction texts, but will not presume existing knowledge
of these areas. It will ask if these generic fictions challenge our perceived notions of literary
traditions and the relationship between culture and history. While a wide range of texts will
be referred to, students are expected to select and focus on one genre or theme.
Required Texts:
Carter, Angela The Bloody Chamber (selected stories)
Dick, Phillip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Le Fanu, Sheridan Carmilla,
Radcliffe, Ann The Mysteries of Udolpho
Shelley, Mary Frankenstein
Stoker, Bram Dracula
Films (to be shown after the seminar: attendance mandatory)
Bladerunner
The Company of Wolves
Dracula (assorted versions)
Frankenstein (assorted versions)
Interview with the Vampire
The Matrix
Rebecca
Romance and Lai
Ms. Michelle O’Neill
Monday 4 pm
Friday 10 am
The mid-twelfth century saw the rise of romance, a type of narrative verse that was
distinctively different from earlier epics. In romance, emphasis is placed on the manners and
morals of a sophisticated courtly society, and uses the idea of all-consuming love as a
motivating force for the hero’s actions. This course will explore the complex worlds of
romance and lai by examining various aspects, such as their depiction of courtly society, the
treatment of women and the recurring themes of magic and the supernatural. The texts will
be read in Modern English prose translation.
Reading list:
Arthurian Romances, Chretien de Troyes, eds WW Comfort and DDR Owen (Everyman,
1975).
The Lais of Marie de France, eds GS Burgess and K Busby (Penguin, 1986).
The Romance of Tristan, Beroul, ed. Alan S Fedrick (Penguin, 1978).
27
The Arthurian Tradition
Dr. Margaret Robson
Friday 10am
Arthurian literature represents one of the most important narrative cycles in European
culture. This course will study a selection of the many Arthurian texts, from their pseudohistorical Celtic origins, through the developments of French chivalric romance, to what has
become recognized as the canonical Arthurian text, Malory's'Mort Darthur'. We will look at
some of the ways in which Arthurianism has been put to political use and will close with an
examination of Arthurianism in modern, popular culture.
Week 1. Introduction
Week 2. History: Geoffrey of Monmouth and the chronicle tradition.
Week 3. French Arthurianism: Chretien de Troyes and Marie de France.
Week 4. The Alliterative Morte Arthure.
Week 5. Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady: The Wife of Bath's Tale.
Week 6. Criticizing Arthur: The Anturs of Arther.
Week 7. Malory 1: The historical context.
Week 8. Malory 2: Arthur and political propaganda.
Week 9. Modern Arthurianisms.
The following comprises a list of the core texts; students will only really need to purchase a
copy of Malory's Mort Darthur, the others will be available either in the library, or in
photocopy form in the Student's Union.
The Life of King Arthur, Wace and Lawman, eds. J. Weiss and R. Allen (Everyman, 1997).
Arthurian Romances, Chretien de Troyes, eds. W.W. Comfort and D.D.R. Owen
(Everyman, 1975).
The Lais of Marie de France, eds. G.S. Burgess and K. Busby (Penguin, 1986).
The Alliterative Morte Arthure, ed. J. Finlayson (York Medieval Texts, 1967).
The Wife of Bath's Tale in Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, preferably in The Riverside
Chaucer.
Ywain and Gawain, Sir Percyvell of Gales and The Anturs of Arther, ed. M. Mills
(Everyman, 1992).
Works, Thomas Malory, ed. E. Vinaver (OUP,1971).
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Ulysses
Dr Anthony Roche (Second Semester only)
Thursday 1pm
Friday 2pm
This seminar will offer students the opportunity to acquire a detailed and intimate reading
knowledge of Joyce's masterpiece, his 'comic epic poem in prose' centred on the sights,
sounds and smells of Dublin on June 16, 1904. Students will be encouraged to develop and
follow their own interests; but there will be certain minimal secondary requirements (a
reading of Richard Ellmann's biography) and at least a nodding qcquaintance with some of
the multifarious Joyces that have emerged over the years - Homeric Joyce, feminist Joyce,
postcolonial Joyce. But the primary emphasis will be on the reading of Joyce's text and what
we as interpreters bring to it, individually and collectively.
Essential Text:
The Student's Annotated 'Ulysses', ed. Declan Kiberd (Penguin)
Recommended Reading:
Harry Blamires, The New Bloomsday Book
Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (rev. ed. 1982)
Hugh Kenner, Ulysses
Maria Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses
Emer Nolan, James Joyce and Nationalism
Shakespearean Comedy and Film
Dr. Philippa Sheppard
Friday 4pm
Film Screenings: as below
This seminar will examine four Shakespearean comedies as performance scripts, not just for
the theatre, but for the twentieth-century performance art form. In addition to considering
the ways in which these four plays conform and depart from the generic expectations of
comedy, we will look at performance history. We will analyse the choices available to
modern film directors and adaptors, regarding casting, editing, textual interpretation, and
design. In addition to viewing one full version of the play, we will compare specially
selected brief clips from other film versions of the same play to arrive at a better
understanding not only of Shakespeare and film, but also of our own society. Each new
Shakespeare film represents a reshaping and repackaging of Shakespeare for its particular
era and culture. We will also look at the process of adapting a literary work for the screen.
29
Course Texts:
We will tackle the texts in the following order. The films are not alternatives for careful
reading of the plays.
William Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost (New Penguin Shakespeare edition)
Much Ado About Nothing
"
Twelfth Night
"
"
The Tempest
"
I will be showing film versions that retain the original language. We will look at Kenneth
Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost and Much Ado About Nothing, Trevor Nunn's Twelfth
Night, and finally, The Tempest, either Derek Jarman's or Peter Greenaway's version,
depending on availability.
Note: the four films will be screened on alternate WEDNESDAYS from 4-6 p.m. in room
J207, beginning on 9 October and continuing on 23 Oct, the 6 and 20 November. The dates
for the screenings in the second semester: 8, 22 January, 5, 19 February.
ATTENDANCE AT THESE SCREENINGS IS MANDATORY FOR THE COURSE.
Gender Roles in Contemporary Film
Ms Lorraine Stierle
Monday 4pm
(Film Screenings: Alternate Mondays at 5pm: commencing wk.2)
This course aims to introduce students to some basic concepts of film theory, including a
cultural studies perspective, and to apply these theories, within a broad framework, to the
films screened during the course. With the emphasis on gender positioning, films are
selected to facilitate discussion on race, class, star persona and ideology. While no prior
knowledge of the subject is assumed, attendance at screenings will be required in order for
students to participate fully in the seminar discussions. The essay written must display
knowledge of the required reading.
Topics to be covered:
Introduction to basic film theory: Reading a film and the use of signifiers.
The 'gaze' : is it always male or do films today offer a more balanced view?
Melodrama: is it packaged for women viewers specifically, and if so, why?
Masculinity: Roles for men, do they reflect the changing values in society?
Discussion around the acceptance of violence as entertainment.
Have racial stereotypes disappeared from contemporary films? Or taken on different faces?
Ideology: Unpacking the relationship between film text and its cultural context.
30
Required Reading:
Denzin, Norman K. (1995)
Green, P. (1998),
Neale S., & Smith M. (eds). (1998)
Turner, Graham. (1999),
The Cinematic Society, Sage, UK.
Cracks in the Pedestal, U. of Mass. Press. USA.
Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, Routledge,UK.
Film as Social Practice, Routledge, UK.
Films (to be shown after the seminar on alternate weeks: attendance mandatory)
Thelma & Louise
American Beauty
A Time to Kill
Disclosure
Dickinson and her Critics.
Dr Maria Stuart (Second Semester only)
Friday 1pm
The seminar will focus on the poems and letters of a single writer: Emily Dickinson. Yet
although encouraging a close engagement with Dickinson’s work, the course will also use
Dickinson as a way of exploring a more general issue, one with profound implications for
any writer: how a writer is constructed and reconstructed by succeeding generations of
readers. Focusing on key moments and figures in the history of Dickinson studies, the
course will examine how different critical approaches have produced contrasting readings of
this poet’s work. Consequently, through a close reading of one writer, the course will alert
students to how flexible a literary text can be in different critical hands.
Among the other critical approaches to be covered will be:
The Problem of Biography (the changing face of Emily Dickinson from the New England
nun of the 1890s to the feminist icon of the 1980s).
Deconstructing Dickinson (the rise in interest in Dickinson as a self-conscious manipulator
of language, offering texts which draw attention to their textuality).
“Give Me That Old Time Religion” (Dickinson and the decline of Calvinism).
Historicising Dickinson (drawing on the insights of New Historicism, recent criticism seeks
to displace the image of a female recluse with one of a writer at the very centre of a culture
marked by Civil War).
The course will finish on the most recent development in Dickinson studies: the rise of
interest in the Dickinson manuscripts. Dickinson is unique among nineteenth-century
writers in that (with few exceptions) her poetry was not published in her lifetime and
consequently it is her manuscripts (some composed of fragments) which remain the most
authoritative basis for readings of her work. Recent web sites by Dickinson scholars such as
Martha Nell Smith seek to offer all Dickinson’s readers greater access to these fragile texts,
and will thus form part of our course material.
31
Required Texts:
Dickinson, Emily. Poems (Reading Edition). Ed. R W Franklin. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1999. All students must have this.
Dickinson, Emily. Selected Letters. Ed. Thomas H Johnson. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1958.
Secondary Reading:
Photocopies of particular critical essays will be available from the Students’ Union.
32
STYLE
SHEET
33
Combined Departments of English
STYLE SHEET
INTRODUCTION
The writing of essays at third level differs in several respects from other types of writing
(e.g. compositions, technical reports, newspaper articles, letters). An academic essay is a
formal piece of writing, which means that it must adhere to certain standards in style, layout
and presentation. Your tutor will discuss with you matters of style and argument, but this
sheet will explain to you what is expected of you in terms of presentation.
1.
General
When submitting your essay, check this list to ensure that you have done everything that is
expected of you:
□ spellings are correct – pay particular attention to proper names (e.g. Spenser, MacNeice,
Bakhtin)
□ punctuation should be clear and aid understanding
□ all grammar and syntax should be correct and clear
□ the essay should be easy to read and leave room for tutors’ comments; leave a large lefthand margin
□ all relevant details must be included (your name, tutor’s name, essay title etc.) on the
cover-sheet provided
□ all quotations are accurately transcribed
2.
List of works cited/bibliography
One key difference between the kinds of writing you will have done before and third level
essays is the need to provide sources for the texts you quote and discuss, including
secondary material. In order to do this, you must keep a record of all the materials you have
consulted in preparing your essay and organise them into a bibliography (also referred to as
a ‘list of works cited’). This should be ready BEFORE you write your essay so that you can
use it to give sources for your citations (see 3 below). You must follow the format below in
all particulars, including punctuation, underlining and indentation. The bibliography should
be arranged in alphabetical order by author’s name and placed at the end of your essay.
How to list a book:
Author’s name, surname first. Title of the book. Ed. name of editor (if applicable).
Publication information (place, publisher, date).
Eliot, George. Middlemarch. Ed. David Carroll. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1988.
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How to list a work in an anthology:
Author’s name, surname first. “Title.” Title of anthology. Ed. Author’s name. Publication
details. Page no. to page no. Example:
Plath, Sylvia. “Tulips.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Alexander Allison, et. al.
New York: Norton, 1983. 1348-9.
How to list an article in a journal:
Author’s name, surname first. “Title of the article.” Periodical title volume number (date):
page no. to page no. Example:
McLeod, Randall. “Unemending Shakespeare’s Sonnet 111.” Studies in English
Literature 21 (1981): 75-96.
How to list an essay in a book:
Author’s name, surname first. “Title of essay.” Title of book. Ed. name. Publication details.
Page no. to page no. Example:
Wayne, Valerie. “Historical Differences: Misogyny and Othello.” The Matter of
Difference: Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Ed. Valerie Wayne.
Hemel Hempstead, 1991. 153-79.
3.
How to key your citations to the bibliography:
Your quotations should be relevant and support your argument by providing a specific
illustration of a point or an idea. There are basically three types of citation which will require
supporting references:
a. Direct quotation; this should always be precise in all details (including spelling,
punctuation and lineation, where relevant), and include an accurate page reference.
b. Close paraphrase and citation of information should also be accurate, and should be
accompanied by a page-range.
c. Loose paraphrase or general ascriptions of points of view should be accompanied by a
reference to a source text.
If your ‘list of works cited’ is correct and complete, placing accurate references for
quotations and arguments in the body of your essay will be simple. The surname and page
reference is sufficient (Example: Wayne, 156.). Quotations must be exact in every detail.
The citation of the source should follow the quotation and must be placed in brackets.
Remember, not to cite your sources exposes you to the charge of PLAGIARISM which
may result in deduction of marks and/or disciplinary action. Titles of books should be
underlined. The full citations for the examples given here can be found in section 4, set out
as they would be in a full bibliography.
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4.
How to quote passages from PROSE and key your quotations to the bibliography:
(a)
Short quotations (less than 4 lines of prose) should be placed in quotation marks
within the text:
Middlemarch’s opening sentence is simple, but effective: “Miss Brooke had that kind of
beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.” (Eliot, 7)
Longer quotations (five lines or more typed) should be indented from the margin and must
not have quotation marks:
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses a fragmented style to
convey her central character’s mental fragility. For example:
There were greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now.
There was legal trouble, I believe, something about the heirs and co-heirs;
anyhow, the place has been empty for years.
That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don’t care – there is something
strange about the house – I can feel it. (155)
NB. Because the sentence which introduces the quotation identifies the source, there is no
need to spell it out again in the citation.
(b)
How to quote POETRY and key your quotations to the bibliography:
Short quotations – up to 3 lines - may be included within the text. Citations use LINE
numbers not page references:
Ben Jonson quickly introduces us to the twin themes of his elegy on Shakespeare by
referring to his “book and fame” (“To the Memory of My Beloved”, 2).
Longer quotations must be indented from the margin. You must follow the layout of the
poem that you are citing.
Jonson signals the fact that Shakespeare is exceptional by using exclamation and by
suggesting that he is the best of poets:
I therefore will begin. Soul of the age!
The applause! Delight! The wonder of our stage!
My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further to make thee a room: (“To the Memory of My
Beloved”, 17-21)
(c)
How to quote passages from DRAMA and key your quotation to the bibliography:
The same rules on length apply here as with poetry and prose (above). However, if quoting
dialogue between two or more characters, you must indent the quotation, supplying the
characters’ names, following by a period (full stop):
Throughout Othello Iago proves to be a master manipulator of language, using
insinuation and inference to plant suspicion in Othello’s mind:
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IAGO.
OTH.
IAGO.
OTH.
IAGO.
Ha! I like not that.
What dost thou say?
Nothing, my lord; or if – I know not what.
Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
Cassio, my lord? No, sure I cannot think it
That he would steal away so guilty-like,
Seeing you coming.
OTH.
I do believe 'twas he. (3.3.34-40)
The citation must include act, scene and line numbers, as in the example above. NOTE:
when you quote from Shakespeare or any other dramatist make sure that you state the edition
used. This will appear in your bibliography as below*. It should always be a ‘reputable’
edition rather than, for example, a schools’ edition.
(d)
How to quote from Online sources and key your quotations to the bibliography:
The example below includes a quotation from a book. However, the source of the
quotation is not a printed book but an electronic version online.
Harriet Jacobs begins her account of her life with a dramatic image of childhood innocence:
“I WAS [sic] born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed
away” (Jacobs ch.1).
Note the accuracy of the quotation—the use of [sic] indicates that you are quoting accurately
from the text and that the capitalised “WAS” is not your typographical error.
This is a text taken from a web site. In order to cite it correctly you must enter information as
detailed as that required for a print source and listed above. However, your source is the web
site and you must seek to include:
a) date of the last update of the site
b) date you accessed the site
c) address of the site, enclosed in angle brackets, < > (see example in the bibliography
section below)
If the information you require is not displayed on the site, include what is listed. In doing so,
you are making your sources available to your reader as you make printed books available
by listing editions and publication details. The “date of access” is important. Sites can be
changed relatively easily and your tutor/seminar leader might open a site which has changed
significantly from the one you used a day or two earlier. Finally, it is advisable to print the
material you use from a web site so that you can verify your source if the site cannot be
located by your tutor/seminar leader.
5.
Bibliography (for the examples in section 4, above)
Eliot, George. Middlemarch. Ed. David Carroll. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1988.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Oxford Book of American
Short Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates. Oxford, Oxford UP, 1994. 154-69.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself. Boston, 1861.
18 Dec. 1997. 25 July 200 <http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/JACOBS/hjhome.htm>
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Jonson, Ben. “To the Memory of My Beloved.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed.
Alexander Allison, et.al. New York, Norton, 1983. 1673-38.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Norman Sanders. Cambridge, Cambridge UP,
1984.
NOTE: The bold-faced type in Sections 2, 3, 4 and 5 is used for emphasis and is not required
in your work.
6.
A few further points:

If you are citing more than one text by the same author, you must
i.
make clear which one you are referring to in your citation. For example, if you are
using two novels by George Eliot, your citations must make a clear distinction,
i.e.
(Eliot, Middlemarch, 55) or (Eliot, Mill on the Floss, 78).
ii.
list them in date order in your list of bibliography, using the following format:
Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss. Ed. A.S.Byatt. Harmondsworth, Penguin,
1979.
---. Middlemarch. Ed. David Carroll. Oxford, Oxford UP, 1988.

You may abbreviate titles for convenience in your citations, but never in the
bibliography. For example, The Mill on the Floss could become simply Mill, or Jonson’s
“To the Memory of My Beloved” might become “Memory.” However, these
abbreviations must be clear and consistent.

Some of the texts you will be using will be taken from collections or anthologies. Rather
than writing out the full details for each item you cite, you could give one entry for the
anthology and then key the other entries to it. For example, if you are writing about
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Storm”,
your list of works cited would look like this:
Chopin, Kate. “The Storm.” Oates, 130-35.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Oates, 154-69.
Oates, Joyce Carol, ed. The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Oxford,
Oxford UP, 1994.
In preparing your essays, you should make full use of the resources on offer in the Library.
These include the Library’s web site. Students of English will find a range of relevant
information and texts available on the Electronic Library site. For example, you might make
use of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Annotated Bibliography of English (ABES) or
Modern Language Association Bibliography (MLA). Primary texts and scholarly articles are
available online on sites such as JSTOR, LION, and SwetsNet Navigator. All these can be
accessed from the Library’s home address:<http://www.ucd.ie/~library/>
If you have any questions about any aspect of this “Style Sheet,” you should ask your
tutor/seminar leader for guidance and advice.
oOo
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