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SYLLABUS

Naziv kolegija: Literature and the 'Troubles'

Nositelj: Dr. sc. Ljiljana Ina GJURGJAN, redoviti profesor

Nastavnik: Dr. Aidan O'Malley

Irish Literature

Title of Course: Literature and the ‘Troubles’

Language: English

Duration:1 semester, 4th or 6th

Status: Elective

Lecture and seminar

Literature and the ‘Troubles’

Some of the most important Irish writing of the past 40-50 years emerged in the context of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’, and this course will examine what has been termed the “Ulster Renaissance” (Clarke 2006).

The first part of course gives a historical and cultural introduction to Northern Ireland and the ‘Troubles’. It examines issues such as: the social and political life in the North before 1968; the Civil Rights movement; the emergence of paramilitary organisations; Unionist and Presbyterian identities.

The second part of the course explores how a set of writers (poets, dramatists and novelists) responded to this crisis. Authors to be studied include: Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Frank McGuinness, Brian Friel, Stewart Parker and Seamus Deane. While the focus is on close readings of individual texts, in discussing these writers, students are also introduced to some of the critical discussions that this artistic activity inspired, with an emphasis on different debates about the role literature plays in creating a sense of communal identity and its appropriate response to political upheaval, repression and violence.

Provisional Schedule

Week 1: The founding of the Northern Irish state and life there up to 1968

 Week 2: The start of the ‘Troubles’: from the Civil Rights movement to Bloody Sunday

 Week 3: Unionist identities

 Weeks 4-6: Dramatic responses to the ‘Troubles’: Brian Friel, The Freedom of the City; Frank McGuinness, Carthaginians; Stewart Parker, Pentecost

 Weeks 7-12: The ‘Belfast Group’: Seamus Heaney, selected poems and The Cure at Troy; Derek Mahon, selected poems; Michael Longley, selected poems

 Weeks 13-14: Seamus Deane, Reading in the Dark

 Week 15: Review and final exam