ENG31490 Contemporary Irish Writing: Race, Class, Gender & Nation

Academic Year 2018/2019

In this seminar, we will focus on Irish writing of the last two decades with a particular focus on continuities, conflicts, and transformations in the literary and cultural representation of gender, sexuality, class and race in Ireland. The literature we will read foregrounds class conflict, gender crisis and multiple forms of traumatic violence, using dark humour, dystopian settings, and surreal imaginative flights to portray difficult realities, and to escape them. We will analyze contemporary fiction and short-story writing as well as selected poetry and non-fiction to explore the way such texts both rearticulate and critique Irish literary and cultural traditions and thematic preoccupations. We will consider the contemporary social and political contexts that these texts both reflect and resist, with a particular focus on the changing landscape of post-crash Ireland. Recent decades have seen immense social, political and cultural transformation and upheaval in Ireland, and in this module we will analyse the ways in which literature has captured, critiqued or contributed to such transformations.

Indicative primary reading (subject to change):
Kevin Barry, City of Bohane (London: Vintage: 2011).
Eimear McBride, A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing (London: Faber & Faber, 2013).
Colin Barrett, Young Skins (Stinging Fly Press, 2013).
Melatu Okorie, This Hostel Life (Skein Press, 2018).

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

-Good knowledge of a range of contemporary Irish writing.
-Good knowledge of debates about gender, sexuality, race, migration, class and national identity in Irish literature, culture, politics and society since the 1970s.
-Ability to analyse the formal aspects of literary texts and to consider the political connotations of literary form and aesthetic issues.
-Ability to analyse the production of gender, race, class, generation, national identities and other structures of power and subjectivity in literary and cultural texts.
-Ability to analyse and synthesise a range of materials and perspectives in a coherent, cogent academic argument.
-Ability to bring learning and knowledge to bear in assessing and reviewing texts for a general audience, and to distinguish between writing for academic and non-academic audiences.
- Ability to critically assess the development and clarity of argument in a piece of written work through peer review.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

12
Specified Learning Activities

38
Autonomous Student Learning

50
Total

100
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.



 
Description % of Final Grade Timing
Essay: 3000 word essay

70

 Coursework (End of Trimester)
Continuous Assessment: Short writing exercises, including reflective piece + essay plan.

30

 Varies over the Trimester

Compensation

This module is not passable by compensation

Resit Opportunities

In-semester assessment

Remediation

Students who fail this module will need to repeat or resit the module depending on the availability of the module in the following semester. If you have failed, please contact the Academic Support Officer for information on how to remediate the module. If you are taking this module as an option or an elective, you may be able to substitute another module. Check with your Programme Office if this is possible.