Barbarians, Courtiers and Sinners: Fighting Words in “Renaissance” Ireland

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course explores the various literatures (especially poetry) that emerge at a time of dramatic change in early modern (16-17th-century) Ireland, including works originally written in Irish and English ranging from courtly poetry of praise and love for noble patrons to rather less savory verse justifications of colonial violence. In tandem with our reading of primary materials (read in English translation), we will examine the historiography of the period to grasp key debates and shifts in scholarly understanding; in so doing, we will take up long standing areas of debate regarding the characteristics of this colonial encounter, the degree to which comparisons are useful or apt, the nature of Irish literary culture, the characteristics of the age, and, if we're feeling cocky, the modern. While you need not know any Irish (Gaelic) to take this course, you should be prepared to conjoin history and theory, poetry and politics, through historicized close reading while working across genres to produce original criticism in the form of several papers whose topics you will develop yourself (with a creative option or two). In fact, that's the whole point: finding your own passion and doing work that only you can do! The course will count toward the IRLL major and minor, the IRST minor, the European Studies minor.