Reading and Writing in Place: Ireland

Reading and Writing in Place: Ireland English 350: Literary Study Tour English 225: Modern British Literature

Marguerite Helmers, instructor Department of English, Radford 226 University of Wisconsin Oshkosh [email protected]

Tour Dates: May 15-26, 2011 These courses of the literary study tour Reading and Writing in Place combine an introduction to Irish literature, culture, history, and politics. Students enrolled in the courses will explore the ways that literary works respond to powerful landscapes and significant political events of their time. In turn, the students who travel to Ireland will keep a substantial journal of writing and field research that explores literature, place, and personal response.

Objectives o Identify political movements in Ireland that fostered artistic production. o Examine literary works as responses to political, social, and cultural change. o Demonstrate a critical understanding of one theme or one writer. o Develop personal connections to Irish literature, writers, and places.

Performance & Attendance You are expected to attend every session of the tour, including all site visits and group workshops. You should be prepared to share journal entries at each workshop.

Required Readings These required readings should be completed prior to the tour departure date. Plan to bring print- outs of poems on the tour and your copy of Dubliners.

Written Assignments & Grading Distribution

1. A Star Called Henry, Roddy Doyle 2. Dubliners, James Joyce 3. The New Dubliners, ed. Frawley 4. Selected poetry by Yeats, Heaney, Boland, and others 5. Selected traditional ballads 60% Journal. Your major assignment is to create an extensive journal that includes writing, sketching, photography, and found objects. Plan to carry your journal with you daily in Ireland and add to it regularly on the tour. The journal will records personal experiences, historical information, and reflections, questions, and annotations on the readings. Some journal entries will be assigned; they will be critical, creative, and reflective.

20% Individual Inquiry. Emerging from your reading, site visits, and journaling, you will demonstrate a critical understanding of one theme or one writer. A final essay of 1500 words that synthesizes your research, observations, and reflections of will be due no later than June 1. This may be handwritten while on the tour.

20% Presentations & Workshops. You will participate in writing and literary discussion workshops at historical sites, sharing your writing, literary reflections, and accumulated historical knowledge.

Journal Entries These suggestions are borrowed from Dr. Donna Campbell, Washington State University.

1. Short passage. Choose a passage that intrigues you. Write a journal entry that discusses the passage, focusing on its word choice, meaning, and your reaction.

2. Three words. Choose any three words that are especially significant in the text, and explain why they are so significant.

3. "The Word" on a speech. Take a passage of dialogue that is especially significant in the text, and after each character's words, write what he or she is REALLY thinking or trying to prove.

4. Stop, fool! Is there a point in the text when a character acts in a way that is so self-destructive or ridiculous that you'd like to stop him or her? Is there any character in the text who might actually have a chance of stopping the character? Write a dialogue (in character) in which you try to dissuade the character from the self-destructive action. 5. Call me Ishmael. Write your journal entry for the week as if you were one of the characters in the fictional work. Comment on the action you've observed or been engaged in, using the style and personality of the character.

6. Better ending. Write an alternate ending for the novel, and explain the reasons why your ending is better than the one the author chose.

7. Right story, wrong form. Rewrite the work or a section of the work in another form. For example, what would Jurassic Park look like if it were a song lyric? a limerick? a sonnet? What would Horton Hears a Who look like if it were turned into a play? How could Prodigal Summer work as a reality TV show?

Supplementary Selected Bibliography: Recommended Reading

Literary Works Banville, John. The Book of Evidence. Banville, John. Blackwater Lightship. Barry, Sebastian. A Long Way. Barry, Sebastian. The Secret Scripture. Bourke, Angela. The Burning of Bridget Cleary Bowen, Elizabeth. The Last September. Dean, John. The Heather Fields and Other Stories. Doyle, Roddy. The Commitments. Doyle, Roddy. The Deportees. Frawley, Oona. New Dubliners. Friel, Brian. Translations. Hawks, Tony. Round Ireland with a Fridge. Joyce, James. Ulysses. McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes. McDonagh, Martin. The Beauty Queen of Leenane. O’Casey, Sean. The Silver Tassie. Solnit, Rebecca. A Book of Migrations. Synge, J. M. The Playboy of the Western World. Trevor, William, The Collected Stories. Trevor, William. The Story of Lucy Gault.

Fairy Tales Kirk, Robert. The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies. Lenihan, Eddie. Meeting the Other Crowd. Maccoitir, Niall. Irish Trees: Myths, Legends, and Folklore Yeats, W. B. The Celtic Twilight.

Films Angela’s Ashes Michael Collins Ondine The Secret of Kells. The Secret of Roan Inish The Wind that Shakes the Barley

Historical Works Cronin, Mike. A History of Ireland. Moody, T. W. The Course of Irish History, 4th Edition O’Brien, Conor Cruise. Ancestral Voices: Religion and Nationalism in Ireland. Scally, Robert. The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine, and Emigration.