Seminar: Gender and Sexuality in Irish Fiction After Joyce

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In this course we will look at the relationship between gender politics and national politics as it plays out in the development of Irish fiction after the era of James Joyce.Beginning with the short stories of Liam O'Flaherty and Sean O'Faolain in the post-independence era, we will follow the reaction against government censorship in the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland in the fiction of Kate O'Brien, John McGahern, Mary Lavin, and Edna O'Brien, and investigate the emergence of feminist and gay and lesbian writers in the 1980s and 1990s. We will conclude with an investigation of the way 21st century Irish writers respond to the major changes in Irish culture, and major revelations about the recent past, that emerged during the first decade of the 21st century. Students will write one 20-30 page seminar paper and several shorter response papers and give one in-class presentation.