The Colonial Crucible: Literature and Politics in Early Modern Ireland

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will explore literatures from a time of dramatic sociopolitical change in early modern (16-17th-century) Ireland, as England was renewing (and energetically justifying) its colonial errand in Ireland, to which Irish people responded in complex ways. We will read a range of texts from royal proclamation to rebel incitements, poetry of love to poetry of the lovelorn, early (anti-Irish, colonialist) ethnography to doggerel travelogue, professional praise poetry to scathing satire, and more. We will look at the intriguing survivals of poetry by women alongside texts that throw Irish manhood into question. In tandem with our reading of primary materials in various languages (read in English translation), we will consider critical debates and shifts in scholarly understanding of the period. Course work will include discussion, reading, short writing assignments and analytical papers, as well as a creative option, as we delve into a fascinating and formative period of Irish history. The course satisfies the literature requirement.