LITT08009 2022 Contemporary Irish Writing

Identify recurring themes and concerns in contemporary Irish writing

Analyse the influence of larger historical, social and cultural movements on fiction form and language

Create original literary analysis of contemporary Irish writing, incorporating and citing relevant scholarship according to academic conventions

Identify relevant scholarly and journalistic sources in analysing new Irish writing

Organise and persuasively present research to others in formal presentation

Engage in original critical assessment of new writing, applying conventions of books journalism

The teaching and learning strategy in this module aims to foster a student-centred approach to teaching, learning and assessment. Mixed modes of delivery are used including lectures, seminar discussions, visiting writers, student presentations and vibrant, inclusive discussion.

The assessment strategy is directly related to the learning outcomes outlined for this module. This module is 100% Continuous Assessment. Each assignment provides learning opportunities for students directly related to the module learning outcomes. The assessments promote independent research, encourage originality and teach academic conventions. Academic Essay (40%), Critical review of new Irish writing publication (30%) and presentation of new Irish writing and original analysis and critique (30%)

Students will be assigned repeat projects in the event that they have failed the module. The module is 100% continuous assessment.

Introduction to Contemporary Irish Writing

• Overview of Irish writing in late 20^th century in context of Irish modernism and emigration. Themes and concerns of Irish writing in the new millennium. Writers might include Kevin Barry, Colin Barrett, Claire Keegan, Colm McCann, Anne Enright, Sara Baume, Donal Ryan, Sebastian Barry, Mike McCormack, Emma Donoghue, Joseph O’Connor, Edna O’Brien, Colm Toibin, Dermot Bolger, Danielle McLaughlin, Eimear McBride, Lisa McInearney and others.

Theories of the Irish Short Story

• Theories of the short story form considered in context of Irish materials and Irish development of the form. Students will be introduced to early Irish theorists of the form from Frank O’Connor’s The Lonely Voice to John Kenny and Heather Ingram. Overview of contemporary practitioners of the form and vision of collected anthologies.

Theories of the Irish Novel

• Introduction to the Irish novel. A consideration of the Irish novel’s form and concerns in the late 20^th century: emigration, exile, nationhood, postmodernity, globalisation. In 2001, Fintan O’Toole remarked on the “angular, discontinuous, spliced-together nature of Irish contemporary reality.” Consideration given to the novel form and the conflicted and fractured nature of contemporary Irish experiences and identities, drawing specifically on Liam Harte’s work Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel: 1987-2007.

 Gender and Nation in Contemporary Irish Writing

• Exploration of gender in relation to national and personal identities in both short story and novel form. Will also consider new wave of Irish women writing and anthologies that redress the Irish canon such as Sinead Gleeson’s The Long Gaze Back.

Irish Writing in the Celtic Tiger

• The Celtic Tiger is a cultural signifier that is inextricably bound to the early years of the 21^st century when Ireland experience seismic changes in the economic and social landscape. We will look at what the Celtic Tiger has meant culturally and how writers have responded to or written out of these years, particularly in the work of Anne Enright, Colm McCann, and other writers who started writing during this period.

Post-Boom Narratives

• In 2013 The Irish Times ran a competition entitled Legends of the Fall, inviting readers to write a story between 1,500 and 3,000 words. The story had to be inspired by the events of the previous five years. The response was overwhelming. We will consider the stories of writers whose work is a response to the economic crash including Danielle McLaughlin, one of the shortlisted writers in the competition, who explores the emotional and psychic fall out and Colin Barrett whose collection Young Skins provides a portrait of a town in post boom Mayo.

Irish Writing and the Postmodern

• Irish writers are renowned for their innovation of literary forms. This section will focus on the postmodern exploration of form and language in writers such as Kevin Barry, There are Little Kingdoms (short story collection), Dark Lies the Island (short story collection) and Beatlebone (novel) and Eimear McBride’s A Girl is Half Formed Thing.

The Cultural Construction of Identity

• Exploration of what it means to be Irish in contemporary Irish writing and how writing since 2000 challenges fixed notions of nation or Irishness. Will consider works by Sara Baume, Mary Costello, Lisa McInearney, Donal Ryan, Louise O’Neill and others.