Sláinte?Alcohol(ism)&theIrish

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

A cliché, a painful truth, an old story, a new one—this course explores alcohol and alcoholism in Irish literature, Irish society and Irishness, examining how alcohol infuses the stories Irish people tell and those told about them, and asking what happens if we take alcohol(ism) seriously as a framework and topic of analysis. We will think about the romance and conviviality of drink and drinking, pubs and wakes and more; and counterposed crusades against drinking (by Father Mathew and others), as well as the unromantic and destructive dimension so central to recent writing. We will think about alcohol(ism) in relation to political authority and nationalism, as well as in relation to colonial resistance, recalcitrance and recovery. We will ask how this "inheritance" travels into Irish America, and even to this campus, asking what legacies are being lived out, and why, and what we make of that. The course will feature a diverse set of texts across a span of Irish literary tradition, including medieval and contemporary, fiction and memoir, poetry and prose, verbal, visual and musical media. On the way students will work on their speaking, analytical and writing skills. Course work will include short writing assignments and analytical papers, a presentation, and a creative assignment.