Ampersand: Literary Culture of Modern Ireland II

3 units

This course will explore the intersection of literature and culture in Ireland from the establishment of the Fianna Fail government of de Valera in the 1930s, through the lean years of the 40s-70s, to the economic boom of the Celtic Tiger in the 1990s and beyond. To appreciate this small nation's rocky road to a successful entrance into the European Union, economic security and national confidence, we will closely read how Ireland's rich and diverse literature casts a cold but feeling eye on its hard-earned independence and fraught nationalism. For the fiction, poetry, and drama of Ireland not only mirrors but often moves the story of this nation's growth and transformation over the decades of economic, social, and political strife. Writers to be studied will include Kate O'Brien, Samuel Beckett, Edna O'Brien, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Brian Friel, William Trevor, John McGahern, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Sebastian Barry, Colm Tóibín, Marina Carr, and Conor Mc Pherson. The Ampersand Ireland trip will take place in May 2025, after final exams.