ENG41610 Irish Theatre

Academic Year 2021/2022

Spanning the early-twentieth century to the present moment, this module offers students the opportunity for intricate examination, discussion, and critique of the “long century” of modern and contemporary Irish theatrical cultures and theatre history. Critically and theoretically inflected seminars will shed new light on various movements and trends in Irish dramatic writing and performance cultures. Students are thus equipped with a new critical vocabulary and an indepth intellectual understanding of the primary concerns of Irish dramatists and theatre makers, both past and present; including playwrights such as Theresa Deevey, Brian Friel, WB Yeats, JM Synge, Marina Carr, and Tom Murphy, as well as the work of several contemporary theatre companies such as THISISPOPBABY, BrokenTalkers, and Dead Centre. Students will engage with the ways in which Irish dramatists, canonical and fringe, have both come from and spoken to various social movements and concerns and have thus charted Ireland’s transition, through the medium of the Irish stage, from occupied territory to fledgling nation state to becoming a prominent cultural and economic voice in today’s late-capitalist “global village”. Each lecturer facilitates critical discussions not only in their field of expertise, but more importantly, will introduce to students several new and rigorous research methods considered vital to successfully interrogating the rich and intriguing canon of Ireland’s theatre in the current international arena of Irish Cultural Studies. Thus, while finely tuning their close-reading skills, particularly in terms of unpacking dramaturgy and dramatic writing, students will also approach the plays and performance events on the module through several contemporary theoretical and intersectional lenses such as cultural nationalism, gender and sexuality, biopolitics, socio-political history, queer theory, and Marxist criticism.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students will be able to:
• Demonstrate indepth knowledge of the ways in which modern and contemporary Irish dramatists and theatre makers have:
1] represented and challenged state and other official configurations of Irish identity, nationhood, and the Irish nation.
2] represented and challenged the ways in which governments and their agents have mobilized Irishness and Irish nationhood as a tool for social control.
• Critically evaluate the ways in which Irish dramatists and theatre makers have utilized both traditional and radical strategies in terms of dramatic form, structure, playwriting, spectatorship, and dramaturgy.
• Theoretically elaborate various representations and the effects of colonialism, nationalism, and contemporary consumerism and socio-economic policies and practices, on Irish theatre.
• Articulate in scholarly terms a broad history of drama, theatre, performance in Ireland as well as that of Irish theatrical culture and the Irish theatre industry.
• Be capable of expressing critical judgement clearly and effectively while also being able to speak and write with clarity, precision, depth, and style; thereby developing and demonstrating critical thinking, theoretical knowledge, and a scholarly vocabulary appropriate to writing about Irish theatre and various related socio-political discourses which the playwrights on the course are both coming from and speaking to.
• Demonstrate sophisticated skills in detailed textual analysis and close reading while also acquiring a command of appropriate literary and dramatic terminology and be able to apply this to the analysis of the both dramas concerned and the socio-polical and cultural landscapes that inspired them.
• Become an advanced, graduate-level researcher in this field of study, able to locate appropriate sources of information and to evaluate and use this knowledge in their oral and written work; be able to effectively manage research time and work both independently and collaboratively.

Indicative Module Content:

The Irish New Wave: An Enduring Imperialism
The Irish Literary Theatre: Upstaging the Commercial Theatre
The Abbey Theatre: Unorthodox Orthodoxy
Dublin Drama League / Gate Theatre: Expressionism Irish-Style
The Theatre of the Troubles.
Women and Irish Drama: Recovering a Century of Authorship
Queering the Irish Stage
21st Century Theatre Companies: From Playwright to Collective
Essay Workshop

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

20

Project Supervision

6

Autonomous Student Learning

174

Total

200

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Seminar debate and discussion
Close reading of primary text
Readings of secondary texts and cultural sources
In-Class peer review
In-Class Presentation
one-on-one consultation with lecturers
summative and formative feedback 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Learning Recommendations:

BA Degree in Humanities


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Essay: Students will develop their own essay topic in close consultation with one of the module lecturers. Several consultation sessions, both face-to-face and online are facilitated. Varies over the Trimester n/a Graded Yes

100


Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback is provided throughout the course of the module, both pre- and post-assessment. Students can arrange to have, at mutually convenient times, a consultation with the relevant module lecturer at any point during the semester. Formative feedback is also provided in a more general, collective manner during seminars

Name Role
Assoc Professor Lucy Collins Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Professor P.J. Mathews Lecturer / Co-Lecturer