Sex and Power in Irish Literature: From Warrior Queens to Punk Poets

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This class looks at how sex and power operate in Irish literature from the bloodthirsty warrior queens and powerful sovereignty goddesses of medieval saga to the sly civility of the eighteenth century to today's activist punk poets and videographers. We will take particular interest in how women are represented by others and how they choose to answer back, but also look at what that means for ideas of masculinity and relationality. We will consider key genres of Irish verbal art in a wide range of compositions from medieval to contemporary. We will be helped along by relevant literary, anthropological and cultural criticism. Are "women's" voices (whether by known women or not) subversive of our expectations or intent upon maintaining the status quo? How can we acknowledge and deconstruct misogyny not as inevitable but as historically and contextually conditioned and subject to demystifying critique? What vantage can we gain on Irish literary history by asking these historical, theoretical and political questions? How do tradition and the canon look when we view them through a gendered lens? What kind of impersonations might we engage in when we read...and write? Genres considered include courtly love poetry, contemporary feminist verse, oral lament, modern love poetry, bardic verse, storytelling, early modern allegorical poetry, folk song, medieval allegory, and contemporary comic verse, all read in English. Your own work for the course will include papers of literary/cultural analysis, a presentation, and a creative writing option for those who want to flex those muscles.