DEPARTMENT
OF
ENGLISH
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
DUBLIN
FIRST YEAR
COURSE BOOKLET
2002/2003
1
FIRST YEAR ENGLISH 2002/3
Welcome to the Combined Departments of English
This booklet will provide you with the information you need about the lectures, tutorials and
assessment of your First Year course. It will help you by answering some of the questions
which first year students often have. The Department of English combines three-inter related
subject areas: Modern English and American Literature, Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama,
and Old and Middle English Literature and Language.
FIRST YEAR QUESTIONS
How do I find someone to talk to about my work?

The Department Office is open from 9.30 to 1.00 and 2.00 to 5.00 during term. The
administrative staff in the Department Office will assist you with general queries, and
direct you to the appropriate member of the academic staff if you need more specific help.

For each year of your degree, a member of staff is Head of Year, responsible for the
study programme and the administration of that year. You can go to see your year head
during his or her office hour if you have any problems or difficulties with your work.
Dr. Tony Roche is Co-ordinator of First Year for Modern English. You may also consult
either Dr. John Barrett or Dr. Janet Clare (up to December) and Dr. Maria Stuart (from
January). For all matters concerning Old and Middle English consult Dr Alan Fletcher.

You can talk to your tutor after a tutorial. If he or she cannot help you personally, they
will refer you to somebody who can.
How do I know what is happening on my course?
Important course information, including essay titles, will be posted on the First Year noticeboard which is located on the J200s corridor.
What preparation should I do for my course?
Learning at university is a two-sided process. You will learn from lectures and tutorials
ONLY if you put the work in yourself. This means:
1. making sure you have any booklists that
are provided
2. making sure you have the books for your
course
3. making sure you read the texts discussed in
lectures and tutorials
Provisional reading lists for the courses in English Language and Medieval Literature follow
the course descriptions in this booklet. Further reading lists will be distributed either at
2
lectures or placed on the table outside the departmental office (J206). Reading lists for
courses in Modern English are contained in the course descriptions available in this booklet.
Copies of the books
3
(preparation cont'd)
recommended are available for purchase at the campus bookshop. You might also like to
check the Students' Union Bookshop where second-hand copies are often available.
Your other responsibilities are attending for tutorials and lectures, and completing the written
work which is required.
What are tutorials for?
The aim of tutorials is to discuss the texts and issues which you are studying. Tutorials are
not short lectures, and you are expected to participate in discussions. This means reading the
text beforehand and arriving ready and able to voice your ideas during the tutorial. You might
discuss different interpretations of a text, or test your ideas before submitting them, in
expanded form in your essay. This is the place where you really get to grips with the subject,
so make the most of it.
Do try to get to know the other people in your tutorial group outside the sessions themselves.
It helps a lot to talk to others about your work, and you will feel much more comfortable in
tutorials if you know the other members of the group. Learning is supposed to be a communal
process here, not a competitive one.
Medieval Literature: Translation
During one of your tutorials, you will be learning how to translate a short piece of medieval
literature into clear modern English. This session will be one in which you learn practical
skills that you will need in the future, so make sure you don't miss it.
Do I have to go to tutorials?
Yes. Tutorials are not optional, and they are a fundamental part of your course. Your
attendance is required at your English Language and Medieval Literature tutorial, which takes
place every THREE weeks, and your Modern English tutorial, which takes place every week.
Make sure that you know the times and locations of your tutorials. Check with your tutor or
with one of the First Year Heads if you are not sure or become confused. If you cannot attend
a tutorial because of illness, you must notify your tutor.
Will there be exams in English?
At the end of the teaching year, you will sit one examination paper for the course in English
Language and Medieval Literature, and two examination papers for the courses in Modern
English. You will have to answer questions across the range of texts and subjects you have
studied during the year.
Do I have to write essays?
Yes. You will write two essays during the year for your English Language and Medieval
Literature course, and four for your Modern English courses. These essays will be marked by
your tutor.
Your essay marks contribute 25% of the total mark for the year,
i.e. the equivalent of one exam paper.
4
It is essential that you follow the guidelines contained in the departmental style sheet
(contained within this booklet, also available on the Department Web Site) when writing and
presenting your essay. Marks will be deducted for inadequate attention to quotations,
footnotes and bibliography. Essays must be submitted by the deadlines given. Start to plan
your essays well in advance, so that you are not writing them at the last minute.
LATE ESSAYS WILL BE SUBJECT TO PENALTIES.
(UNLESS AN EXTENSION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FROM THE HEAD OF YEAR)
Essay Due Dates 2002-03:
4 November
2 December
20 January
3 February
31 March
7 April
(Modern)
(Modern)
(Old & Middle)
(Modern)
(Modern)
(Old & Middle)
(Please note that these dates are subject to change. If change is necessary you tutor will let
you know and details will be posted on the First Year notice-board)
Do I have to go to lectures?
Yes. Lectures are compulsory. Your attendance is required unless you are ill. It is easy to
think that you can get away with missing one or two, but lectures are a key part of your
course. You are depriving yourself of an important teaching session if you skip a lecture and
it is guaranteed that you will regret it later.
Getting the best out of lectures.
Please make sure that you arrive on time for a lecture and stay until the end. Arriving or
leaving while a lecture is in progress is not only rude, but also very distracting to other
students who are trying to listen. You should bring pen and paper and take notes--these
should contain the main points of the lecture, rather than an illegible attempt at copying the
lecturer's every word. Try reading your notes straight after the lecture while you can still
remember what it was about, to check they make sense. If you come back to them two
months afterwards it will be too late to work out what you really meant to write down.
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Mode I Entrance
The results of the First Year examination will determine which students are offered places on
the Mode I (pure English) course for the second and third year. Mode I is a pure English
degree with twice as many courses in English as Mode II. It is for students who wish to
commit themselves exclusively to studying English in all its aspects, language as well as
literature, historical as well as modern. Mode I English is subject to an entry limit of twenty
students in second year. One of the advantages of Mode I is that a substantial number of
courses will be taught to the Mode I group alone. Another advantage is that Mode I students
choose more Option Seminars (four rather than two).
Students studying first year Linguistics have another option open to them in second and third
year. This is to combine Linguistics with the study of English Language and Medieval
English Literature (called Old and Middle English in the Faculty Handbook)
Further details of the content of the Mode I course and how to apply for it will be provided
during the year. There will be a lecture explaining this at the beginning of the second
semester.
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Staff in the Department
Modern English and American Literature
Staff in Modern English and American Literature are responsible for the teaching of and
research into post-medieval literature through to the present day.
Name
Office
Professor J.C.C. Mays
(Head of Department)
Dr John Barrett
Dr John Brannigan
Dr Ron Callan
Prof Andrew Carpenter
Dr Janet Clare
Dr Anne Fogarty
Dr Eldrid Herrington
Dr Jarlath Killeen
Dr. Philippa Sheppard
Dr Maria Stuart
Dr. Jerome de Groot
Extension
J202
8792
J218
K202
J209
J303
C210A
J211
C209
8256
8181
8158
8792
8695
8159
8622
K203
8260
C210C
8694
Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama
Staff in Anglo-Irish are responsible for the teaching of and research into the literature of
Ireland in the English language. Courses cover the period from
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) to the present.
Name
Professor Declan Kiberd
(Head of Department)
Dr Catriona Clutterbuck
Mr Brian Donnelly
Dr Anthony Roche
Co-ordinator of 1st Year
Dr Frank McGuinness
Office
Extension
J 213
8348
J213
J214
J210
8238
8160
8192
J212
Old and Middle English
Staff in Old and Middle English are responsible for teaching of and research into medieval
literature. In addition, we teach the study of the English language.
Professor Mary Clayton
(Head of Department)
Professor Terence Dolan
Dr Alan Fletcher
(Head of First Year – OME)
Professor Peter Lucas
Dr Margaret Robson
J205
8251
J215
J217
8156
8418
J204
J205
8155
8251
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FIRST YEAR ENGLISH 2002/3
MODERN ENGLISH
In the first year we will be considering writing from different literary traditions and in multicultural contexts: Irish, American and English. Literary texts from different periods will be
studied from both formal and cultural perspectives. Since we will be considering a wide range of
texts, you will need to read attentively and in advance in order to be prepared for lectures and
tutorials.
In the first semester we will examine the formal aspects of the novel, poetry and drama. In
lectures and tutorial discussions we will also be focusing on the way historical and cultural
pressures produced different forms and changes in those forms. Further aims will be to
demonstrate that there are many ways of reading the same texts and to help you develop some of
the requisite technical and conceptual language for the discussion of literary works.
In the second semester students will build on the knowledge acquired in the first semester by
considering literature in a broader cultural context. Units 4, 5 and 6 will focus on the relationship
between literature and culture during the periods of the English, Irish and American literary
Renaissances. These courses will be inter-generic in their representation of national literature at
particular historic moments.
First Arts students will write four essays in Modern English during the year. Essay titles will be
offered on selected subjects covered in the Lecture Courses.
A number of texts are required purchase for each unit. In addition, you should have a good
dictionary (Concise Oxford or Collins) and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, ed.
Chris Baldick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
The overall aims of first year Modern English are:

To improve analytical reading skills

To write well structured, properly documented essays

To acquire some critical vocabulary and theoretical perspectives

To place texts in literary and cultural contexts
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OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH
In the first semester students study the English language. The aim is to provide a grasp of the
issues connected with language and the ways in which it is constructed and reconstructed.
This course will examine the technicalities of writing and speaking as a prelude to literary
analysis.
The course on medieval literature in the second semester introduces students to features of
early and medieval life. This creates a backdrop against which it is possible to study in detail
the surviving literature, beginning with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Students will practice
reading Middle English so that they can easily deal with the language of Chaucer’s text.
First Arts students will write two essays in Old and Middle English during the year. Essay
titles will be offered on selected subjects covered in the lecture courses.
Provisional reading lists for these courses are supplied here following the course descriptions,
and on the English Department web site. Further lists will be provided during the lecture
courses themselves. However, it is essential that all students purchase a copy of The
Riverside Chaucer, ed. L. Benson et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987). Copies are
available from the campus bookshop.
In addition to the aims of Modern English, those of first year
Old and Middle English are:

To acquire an understanding of the internal structures of language

To achieve basic reading skills in Middle English

To build up an awareness of medieval life and culture
 To apply a variety of critical perspectives to medieval texts
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Lecture Schedule
Tuesdays at 10.00 am; Wednesdays at 3.00 pm; Thursdays at 10.00 am.
All lectures are held in Theatre L.
First Year 2002 - 2003
Term begins 16 September 2002
Tuesday 17 September: Introductory Lecture.


FIRST SEMESTER


UNIT ONE: DRAMATURGY AND PERFORMANCE
Eng. 1003
Lecturers: Dr. John Barrett, Dr. Janet Clare, Dr. Anthony Roche
A mini-survey which will introduce drama in its theatrical, historical and formal guises, beginning
with ancient Greek tragedy and concluding with contemporary plays. The emphasis of the early
part of the course will be on tragedy, particularly classical and Renaissance. Through a study of
Oedipus and Hamlet we will see how tragedy as a genre undergoes change and assimilation. Later
lectures will consider, first, the advent of realism and, then, experiments with form in the plays of
Arthur Miller, Caryl Churchill, Samuel Beckett and Brian Friel. It is important that students
should understand that plays are only realised in performance, and, to that end, some video
screenings will be arranged. In addition, students might avail themselves of the offerings of
Dramsoc and should see at least one play professionally produced in the Dublin theatre. By
reflecting on these experiences and by reading reviews etc. they should become aware of theatrical
as opposed to literary values.
1. Wednesday 18 September (Dr. Barrett)
Introduction
2. Thursday 19 September (Dr. Clare)
Origins
3. Tuesday 24 September (Dr. Roche)
Oedipus the King
4. Wednesday 25 September (Dr. Barrett)
Hamlet I
5. Thursday 26 September (Dr. Clare)
Hamlet II
6. Tuesday 1st October (Dr. Roche)
Ghosts
7. Wednesday 2 October (Dr. Roche)
Death of a Salesman I
8. Thursday 3 October (Dr Barrett)
Death of a Salesman II
9. Tuesday 8 October (Dr Barrett)
Top Girls
10. Wednesday 9 October (Dr. Roche)
Waiting for Godot
11. Thursday 10 October (Dr Barrett)
Dancing at Lughnasa
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[Contd.: UNIT ONE: DRAMATURGY AND PERFORMANCE
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Aristotle. Poetics, (Penguin, 1996). Certain chapters are required reading.
Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot (Faber 1956 and reprints)
Churchill, Caryl, Top Girls, (Methuen, reprinted, 1990)
Friel, Brian. Dancing at Lughnasa. (Faber 1990).
Ibsen, Henrik, Ghosts. trans. Michael Meyer. Plays: One, Ibsen. (Methuen, 1980).
Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman (Penguin, reprinted, 1996)
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, (New Cambridge edition, ed. Philip Edwards)
Sophocles, Oedipus The King in The Three Theban Plays, trans. Robert Fagles Harmondsworth:
(Penguin, 1984).
RECOMMENDED READING:
Additional reading will be announced by the individual lecturers.
UNIT TWO: Approaching Narration: The American Short Story; Wuthering Heights
Eng. 1002
This course examines two kinds of writing in prose: the short story and the novel; it will equip
you to handle considerations of form and text together with contextual and social
considerations. In the context of short stories, the primary aim is to explore the critical terms
necessary for your understanding of the genre; the focus will include allusion, closure, free
indirect discourse, implied author, intertextuality, location, point of view, repetition, and
sequence. Such terms, together with other technical matters connected with the handling of
narrative, will be complemented with an examination of general issues relevant to the
‘Americanness’ of these stories. The study of the novel will take up many of the terms and
techniques examined in the short stories, and add to these an examination of Wuthering
Heights through theories of class, race, and gender.
All secondary reading on Wuthering Heights is available on photocopy in the Student Union.
1. Tuesday 15 October (Prof Mays):
General Introduction: Ways of Approaching
Short Narratives
2. Wednesday 16 October (Prof Mays):
Beginnings - Irving, ‘Rip Van Winkle’; Austin,
‘Peter Rugg, the Missing Man’
3. Thursday 17 October (Prof Mays):
Renaissance: Melville, ‘The Paradise of
Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids’;
Hawthorne, ‘The Wives of the Dead’; Clemens,
‘Cannibalism in the Cars’; Poe, ‘The Tell-Tale
Heart’.
11
(Contd. UNIT TWO: Approaching Narration: The American Short Story; Wuthering Height)
4. Tuesday 22 October (Prof Mays):
5. Wednesday 23 October (Prof Mays):
6. Thursday 24 October (Dr Herrington):
Maturity and Critique –
James, ‘The Middle Years’; Wharton, ‘A
Journey’; Cather, ‘A Death in the Desert’;
Chopin, ‘The Storm’; Chesnutt, ‘The Sheriff’s
Children’.
Conclusion
Gilman, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.
Wuthering Heights: Seeing Doubles
READING WEEK, 28 OCTOBER TO 3 NOVEMBER. NO LECTURES OR TUTORIALS.
STUDENTS SHOULD USE THIS WEEK AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR READING COURSE TEXTS
7. Tuesday 5 November (Dr Herrington):
Beasts and Blondes
8. Wednesday 6 November (Dr Herrington): ‘The Question Is, Which Is To Be Master’
9. Thursday 7 November (Dr Herrington):
Sex
10. Tuesday 12 November (Dr Herrington):
Doubling Back
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1994.
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Any edition of this book is acceptable, but it is
Recommended that you purchase the edition from the bookshop in order to follow page
references given in lectures.
Secondary reading
Conn, Peter. Literature in America: An Illustrated History. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1989.
May, Charles E. The Short Story: The Reality of Artifice. New York: Macmillan, 1995.
May, Charles E., ed.The New Short Story Theories. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press,
1994.
Tallack, Douglas. The Nineteenth-Century American Short Story: Language, Form, and
Ideology. London: Routledge, 1993.
Eagleton, Terry. ‘Heathcliff and the Great Hunger’, Heathcliff and the Great Hunger. London:
Verso, 1995.
Eagleton, Terry. ‘Wuthering Heights’, Myths of Power. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988.
Empson, William.‘Wuthering Heights’, Argufying. London: Hogarth, 1988.
Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar. ‘Wuthering Heights’, The Madwoman in the Attic. London:
Yale University Press, 1984.
12
UNIT THREE: READING POETIC FORMS
Eng. 1001
Lecturers: Prof Andrew Carpenter and Dr Anne Fogarty
This lecture course will examine some of the principal poetic forms, including the sonnet, the
ballad and the elegy. It will also consider the nature of poetic language, the use made of
imagery and rhetorical devices by poets in different eras and at the influence of gender on
poetic voice.
1. Wednesday 13 November (Prof. Carpenter)
What is poetry? Poetic language and poetic form
2. Thursday 14 November (Prof. Carpenter)
The Sonnet
3. Tuesday 19 November (Prof. Carpenter)
Form and language in political poetry: Wilfred Owen, "Anthem for Doomed Youth";
Henry Reed, "Naming of Parts"; William Blake, "Holy Thursday II"; Jonathan
Swift"Satirical Elegy"; e.e. Cummings, "next to of course god america i".
4. Wednesday 20 November (Prof. Carpenter)
Figurative Language: W.S. Merwin, "Separation"; William Carlos Williams, "The Red
Wheelbarrow"; Emily Dickinson, "A Bird came down the Walk"; Dylan Thomas "Fern
Hill"; Christopher Smart, from "Jubilate Agno".
5. Thursday 21 November (Prof. Carpenter)
The Poetry of Wilfred Owen: “Dulce et Decorum Est”, “Insensibility”, “Strange
Meeting”, “Futility”.
6. Tuesday 26 November (Dr. Fogarty)
The Ballad: "Lord Randal"; "The Unquiet Grave"; "Bonny Barbara Allen"; Keats, "La
Belle Dame Sans Merci"; W.H. Auden; "As I Walked Out One Evening"; W.B. Yeats, "The
Rose Tree", "Come Gather Round Me Parnellites", "The Three Bushes"; Bob Dylan,
“Boots of Spanish Leather”.
7. Wednesday 27 November (Dr Fogarty)
The Elegy: Chidiock Tichborne, "Tichborne's Elegy"; Ben Jonson, "To the Memory
of My Beloved, the Author Mr. William Shakespeare”, Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written
in a Country Churchyard"; Theodore Roethke, “Elegy for Jane”; W.B. Yeats, "The
Municipal Gallery Revisited", "Under Ben Bulben".
8. Thursday 28 November (Dr Fogarty)
The Ode: Andrew Marvell, “An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland”;
John Dryden, “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day”, Samuel T Coleridge, “Dejection : An
Ode”; Allen Tate, “Ode to the Confederate Dead”; Robert Lowell, “The Quaker
Graveyard in Nantucket”.
13
(CONTD. UNIT THREE: READING POETIC FORMS)
9. Tuesday 3 December (Dr Fogarty)
The Politics of Form: The Sonnet: Thomas Wyatt, "The long love that in my thought";
Philip Sidney, "What have I thus betrayed my liberty"; Shakespeare, "When my love
swears that she is made of truth"; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "How do I love thee? Let
me count the ways"; Edna St Vincent Millay, "I being born a Woman and Distressed";
W.B. Yeats, "Leda and the Swan"; Seamus Heaney, "A dream of jealousy”.
10. Wednesday 4 December (Dr Fogarty)
I: Gender and Poetry: Ann Finch, "A Nocturnal Reverie"; Ann Bradstreet "The Author to
Her Book"; Emily Dickinson, "After Great Pain", "I heard a Fly Buzz"; Eavan Boland,
"The Pomegranate"; Rita Dove, “The Bistro Styx”.
11. Thursday 5 December (Dr Fogarty)
II: Gender and Poetry: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes: “The Colossus,
“Ariel”, “Tulips”, “Daddy”, “Lady Lazarus”, “Black Rook in Rainy Weather”. …..
check Hughes poems
REQUIRED TEXT:
Allison, Alexander, et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. New York and London: Norton,
1983.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Furniss, Tom, and Michael Bath. Reading Poetry: An Introduction. London: Prentice Hall, 1996.
UNIT FOUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Eng 1004 – Introduction to English Language Studies
Lecturers: Professor Clayton, Professor Lucas, Dr. Fletcher, Dr. Robson
Wednesdays, 12 noon
All lectures are held in Theatre L
Lectures are scheduled to begin on the hour stated and to finish at ten minutes to the hour.
Language is fundamental to our society and mediates all our relationships with those around
us. Yet, although we all use language, sometimes we seem unable to say what we really
mean. On other occasions our language communicates more than we had intended. Our
control over what we say is not always as complete as we would like. So where does our
language come from? How does it work? How does it change? What rules regulate it, and
why? An understanding of the issues involved with language is vital when dealing with
critical approaches to texts. This course is an opportunity to look closely at language and to
consider these questions, as well as to think about what we do when we interpret texts, as
defined in the widest sense.
1. September 18 (Prof. Clayton)
Elements of Linguistics
2. September 25 (Prof. Lucas)
Elements of Linguistics
3. October 2 (Prof. Lucas)
Grammar
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(Contd. UNIT FOUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES)
4. October 9 (Dr. Fletcher)
Ways of Reading: An Introduction to Critical
Theory
5. October 16 (Dr Fletcher)
Ways of Reading: An Introduction to Critical
Theory
6. October 23 (Dr. Fletcher)
Ways of Reading: An Introduction to Critical
Theory
7. November 6 (Prof. Clayton)
Written English
8. November 13 (Dr. Robson)
Written English
9. November 20 (Dr. Fletcher)
Spoken English
10. November 27 (Dr. Fletcher)
Spoken English
11. December 4 (Prof. Clayton)
Linguistic/Semantic Change
Reading Week: 28 October – 1 November 2002 inclusive
There will be no lectures during this week but tutorials will continue
RECOMMENDED READING:
Aitchison, Jean. Linguistics: An Introduction. 4th ed. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1995.
Barber, C.L. The Story of Language. London: Pan, 1979.
Barber, Charles. The English Language: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1993.
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.
Burchfield, R. The English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Burgess, Anthony. Language Made Plain. Rev. ed. London: Fontana, 1984.
---. A Mouthful of Air: Language and Languages, Especially English. London: Hutchinson,
1992.
Crystal, David and Derek Davy. Investigating English Style. Harlow: Longman, 1973.
Jespersen, Otto. Growth and Structure of the English Language. 10th ed. Oxford: Blackwell,
1982.
Potter, Simeon. Our Language. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966.
Potter, Simeon. Changing English. London: Deutsch, 1969.
Saussure, Frederick de. Course in General Linguistics. Ed. Charles Bally & Albert Sechehaye,
trans. Roy Harris. 3rd ed. London: Duckworth,1983.
Vallins, George H. Spelling. Rev. ed. London: Deutsch, 1965.
Christmas Holidays:
7 December 2002 --5 January 2003
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SECOND SEMESTER
Term begins 6th January 2003
UNIT FIVE: ENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE
Eng. 1007
Lecturers: Dr Frank McGuinness and Dr. Philippa Sheppard
This course will consider the emergence of a national literature in England in the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth centuries. Inspired by greater access to the literature of continental
Europe and a revival of interest in the classics, the literature and drama of this period
combined popular and academic elements. The period witnessed the emergence of a
professional theatre with Shakespeare as one of its playwrights. Poets and dramatists extended
the expressive powers of language and experimented with literary and dramatic forms. At the
same time, drama registered and negotiated national interests as England developed a role as a
colonial power, in opposition to Catholic Europe.
1. Tuesday 7 January
Introduction: Humanist Theories of
Writing Sidney, An Apology for Poetry
(extracts in the Students' Union)
2. Wednesday 8 January (Dr Sheppard)
The History Play: The Chronicles
I Henry IV
3. Thursday 9 January (Dr McGuinness)
I Henry IV
4. Tuesday 14 January (Dr Sheppard)
2 Henry IV: Kin and Kingship
5. Wednesday 15 January (Dr McGuinness)
2 Henry IV
6. Thursday 16 January (Dr McGuinness)
The Sonnets: The Renaissance Sonnet
Sequence
7. Tuesday 21 January (Dr McGuinness)
The Sonnets
8. Wednesday 22 January (Dr Sheppard)
Marlowe, Hero and Leander
9. Thursday 23 January (Dr McGuinness)
Shakespeare, The Tempest
10. Tuesday 28 January (Dr Sheppard)
The Tempest: Critical Interpretations
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Marlowe, Christopher. Hero and Leander. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. 3rd ed. Ed.
Alexander W. Allison et. al., New York: Norton, 1983. 170-185
Shakespeare, William. Henry IV, Part One. Ed. P.H. Davison, Harmondsworth:
New Penguin Shakespeare, 1968.
Shakespeare, William. Henry IV, Part Two, Ed. P.H. Davison, Harmondsworth:
New Penguin Shakespeare, 1977
Shakespeare, William. Sonnets. Ed. Katherine Duncan Jones.Arden (2000).
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Ed. Anne Righter. Harmondsworth:
New Penguin Shakespeare, 1968.
16
UNIT SIX: THE IRISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE 1885-1939
Eng. 1006
Lecturers: Dr. Catriona Clutterbuck and Dr. Frank McGuinness
Ireland at the outset of the last century was still in the process of reinventing itself as a modern
nation and literary artists made a massive and subtle contribution to the reshaping of a national
identity. Questions of form and genre were paramount. Some felt that the novel was best suited to
describe a made society and that the short story was more suitable to describe a society still in the
making. It was often said that the brief lyric poem, the folk anecdote and the shorter narrative
were 'quintessentially Irish'. Others contended that Irish writers had the ability to rework the
traditional genres until they became something new. The aim of this course is to introduce
students to some of the leading artists of the Irish literary Renaissance: Lady Gregory, Somerville
and Ross, Yeats, Joyce, Synge. A related objective is to show how, in their handling of different
genres, these writers also re-wrote many of the rules of European literary form.
1. Wednesday 29 January (Dr Clutterbuck)
What was the Irish Renaissance?
2. Thursday 30 January (Dr Clutterbuck)
Female Heroism: Augusta Gregory,
Grania and the Revival.
3. Tuesday 4 February (Dr Clutterbuck)
Somerville and Ross, The Real
Charlotte
4. Wednesday 5 February (Dr Clutterbuck)
The Real Charlotte (2)
5. Thursday 6 February (Dr Clutterbuck)
Joyce’s Dubliners
6. Tuesday 11 February (Dr McGuinness)
The Lyrical Novel: Joyce’s Portrait
7. Wednesday 12 February (Dr McGuinness)
Joyce’s Portrait (2)
8. Thursday 13 February (Dr McGuinness)
Synge and the Problem of Generic
Expectation:Riders to the Sea and
The Playboy of the Western World (1)
9. Tuesday 18 February (Dr McGuinness)
Synge and the Problem of Generic
Expectation:Riders to the Sea and
The Playboy of the Western World (2)
10. Wednesday 19 February (Dr Clutterbuck)
The Poetry of W.B. Yeats (1)
11. Thursday 20 February (Dr Clutterbuck)
The Poetry of W.B Yeats (2)
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Lady Gregory, Selected Writings, edd. Lucy McDiarmid and Maureen Waters
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995).
Somerville and Ross, The Real Charlotte (Dublin: A and A Farmar)
Any edition of James Joyce’s Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man may be
used.
17
(Required texts Irish Literary Renaissance contd).
J.M. Synge, Collected Plays and Poems and ‘The Aran Islands’, ed. Alison Smith (London:
Everyman, 1996)
W.B. Yeats, Selected Poetry, ed. Timothy Webb (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991)
RECOMMENDED READING
Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation (London: Vintage,
1996)
Other reading will be recommended by the course lectures
UNIT SEVEN: AMERICAN LITERARY RENAISSANCE
Eng. 1005
Lecturers: Dr Ron Callan and Dr Maria Stuart
This course will introduce you to a dramatic period of writing in the United States of
America. About 50 years after the Declaration of Independence, a number of writers set
about establishing a body of work which would be seen as "American". Clearly linked to the
politics of independence and the creation of nationhood, this work sought to establish an
American form and content, and to create a distance between American writing and the
tradition of British and European writing. It was during the Second World War and at a time
when the USA was being seen as a superpower that this period in the mid-nineteenth century
was named as the American Renaissance. In this course we will examine the work of writers
who have long been established in the canon of this Renaissance. However, we will also
introduce some writers who were not included. We do so to acknowledge a more diverse
Renaissance than was first described and to reflect the multiculturalism of the USA. Formal
and thematic issues will be examined alongside those of gender, nation, politics and race in
the poetry and prose of the time.
1. Tuesday 25 February (Dr Callan)
Writing America: Literature for a
New Nation
2. Wednesday 26 February (Dr Callan)
Selfhood and Nationhood:
Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" (1)
3. Thursday 27 February (Dr Stuart)
Selfhood and Nationhood:
Walt Whitman: "Song of Myself" (2)
Term break: 1 March and return on 24 March
18
[Contd.: UNIT SEVEN: AMERICAN LITERARY RENAISSANCE)
4. Tuesday 25 March (Dr Stuart)
Fallen Women and Native "Savages":
Gender and Race in The Scarlet Letter (1)
5. Wednesday 26 March (Dr Callan)
The Letter and the Law: Hawthorne's
The Scarlet Letter (2)
6. Thursday 27 March (Dr Callan)
Writing the South (1): Mark Twain's
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
7. Tuesday 1 April (Dr Stuart)
Writing the South (2): Mark Twain's
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
8. Wednesday 2 April (Dr Stuart)
The Woman Writer in Nineteenth-Century
America (1): The Case of Emily Dickinson
9. Thursday 3 April (Dr Callan)
Rewriting Race (1): Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass
10. Tuesday 8 April (Dr Stuart)
Rewriting Race (2): Harriet Jacobs' Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Baym, Nina et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 4th ed., Vol.1. London:
Norton, 1994.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 1884 London: Everyman, 1994.
UNIT EIGHT MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE
(Eng 1008)
Lecturers: Professor Clayton, Professor Dolan, Dr. Fletcher, Dr. Robson
Wednesdays, 12 noon
All lectures are held in Theatre L
People have been writing in various forms of English for over a thousand years, and an
impressive inheritance of prose and poetry survives from the medieval period in particular.
This course begins with an introduction to medieval life. It then moves on to Geoffrey
Chaucer, perhaps the most famous of Middle English writers. His work The Canterbury Tales
consists of a series of stories told by a group of pilgrims travelling from London to
Canterbury. Chaucer uses this framework to present a dazzling display of characters,
discussions of social and ethical issues, and stories of all types, from elegant tales of love to
bawdy farce. In this course, students apply critical techniques to the General Prologue,
followed by a detailed study of two of the most lively tales. A medieval romance, based on
the Orpheus story, will also form part of the course, and it will conclude with an introduction
to Old English literature.
19
(Contd. UNIT EIGHT MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE)
1. January 8 (Dr. Robson)
Introduction: Medieval Life
2. January 15 (Prof. Clayton)
Special session for those interested in reading
Mode I – Pure English in the next academic year.
3. January 22 (Prof. Dolan)
Chaucer: The General Prologue to The Canterbury
Tales
4. January 29 (Prof. Dolan)
Chaucer: The General Prologue to The Canterbury
Tales
5. February 5 (Prof. Dolan)
Chaucer: The General Prologue to The Canterbury
Tales
6. February 12 (Prof. Dolan)
Chaucer: The General Prologue to The Canterbury
Tales
7. February 19 (Dr. Fletcher)
Chaucer: The Miller’s Tale
8. February 26 (Prof. Dolan)
Chaucer: The Reeve’s Tale
9. March 26 (Dr. Robson)
Sir Orfeo
10. April 2 (Dr Robson)
Sir Orfeo
11. April 9 (Prof. Clayton)
Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England
12. April 16 (Prof. Clayton)
Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England
REQUIRED TEXT:
Chaucer: The Riverside Chaucer, ed. L. Benson et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987)
Sir Orfeo and Sir Launfal, ed. L. Johnson (Leeds, 1984).
RECOMMENDED READING:
Andrew, M. "Context and Judgement in the General Prologue." Library Photocopy 11043.
Cooper, Helen. The Canterbury Tales. 2nd ed. Oxford Guides to Chaucer. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1996.
Eberle, Patricia. "Commercial Language and the Commercial Outlook in the General
Prologue." Library Photocopy 9668.
Hoffman, Arthur. "Chaucer’s Prologue to Pilgrimage: The Two Voices." Library Photocopy
9671.
Jost, Jean E., ed. Chaucer’s Humor: Critical Essays. New York and London:Garland, 1994.
20
(Contd. UNIT EIGHT, MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE )
Mann, Jill. Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire: The Literature of Social Classes and the
General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
Morgan, G. "The Universality of the Portraits in the General Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales." Library Photocopy 3284.
Owen, A. "Development of the Art of Portraiture in Chaucer’s General Prologue." Library
Photocopy 9676.
Pearsall, Derek. The Canterbury Tales. London: Unwin Hyman, 1979.
Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Blackwell,
1992.
Skute, L. "Catalogue Form and Catalogue Style in the General Prologue of the Canterbury
Tales." Library Photocopy 9679.
21
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, McNeice,
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.
22
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.
23
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. B
(b)
NB. Because the sentence which introduces the quotation identifies the
source, there is no need to spell it out again in the citation.
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:
24
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.
Bibliography or ‘list of works cited’ for the examples in section 3, above:
5.
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>
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.
25

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.
26
Notes
27