Academic Year/course:
2023/24
416 - Degree in English
27852 - Irish Literature
Syllabus Information
Academic year:
2023/24
Subject:
27852 - Irish Literature
Faculty / School:
103 - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
Degree:
416 - Degree in English
ECTS:
6.0
Year:
4 and 3
Semester:
Second semester
Subject type:
Optional
Module:
---
1. General information
The main objective of this subject is to provide students with the basic knowledge about Irish literature and with the critical and formal skills necessary to approach the analysis of compulsory literary texts. Students should be able to frame the works in the appropriate historical-cultural and literary context and relate them to the themes and concerns of Irish literature, as well as articulate their own interpretations of them. Students are expected to be familiarized with literary concepts and narrative techniques used to analyze texts. These approaches are aligned with the SDGs, so that the acquisition of learning outcomes will contribute to some extent to the achievement of goals 1, 4, 5, 10, 13, 16 and 17.
2. Learning results
In order to pass the subject, the student must accomplish the following goals:
Define and delineate the main themes and trends in Irish literature in the English language.
Understand and interpret texts taking into account the historical context and social, historical and cultural relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Get to know the most representative genres, authors and works of contemporary Irish literature.
Synthesize the most relevant formal characteristics and the basic contents of the texts included in the program.
Frame the works in the corresponding historical and literary context in which they were conceived.
Correctly analyze poems, short stories or fragments of longer texts using the relevant critical and formal tools.
Present their own ideas on topics related to the works treated in the program.
Handle the appropriate bibliographic sources to address the study of specific topics related to Irish literature in the English language, select, express and articulate the relevant information in a coherent way.
Value the importance of the authors and works included in the programme for a better understanding of the Irish reality in its current European context.
Correctly use of the English language, both orally and in writing, at a C1.1 level.
3. Syllabus
1. The Irish Novel
The colonial paradigm.
Formal features of the Irish novel.
Main genres and themes
Carmilla (Le Fanu 1872)
2. The Big House Novel
The Anglo-Irish Ascendancy and Big House culture.
Conventions of the genre. Main authors and titles.
"At Olivehill" (W. Trevor 2007)
3. The Peasant Novel
The myth of rural Ireland
Women in rural Ireland
Main authors and titles.
The Boy in the Moon (K. O'Riordan 1997)
4. Silenced Identities in Irish Fiction
The Irish backward look and obsession with the past
Narrative, Memory and History: The Magdalene Laundries
Small Things Like These (C. Keegan 2021).
Lesbian Sexuality: "The Husband" (M. Dorcey 1989)
5. The Troubles Novel
The historical facts
Written fiction: novels and short stories
"The Hills Are Alive" (J. O’Connor 1997)
4. Academic activities
GUIDED ACTIVITIES
Theoretical classes: introduction to the historical, geographical, ideological and cultural context of Irish literature to identify the characteristics of the most relevant genres, their main authors and works, and the key concepts for their correct understanding and analysis.
Practical classes to analyze the compulsory texts of the program.
SUPERVISED ACTIVITIES
Individual tutorials for the follow-up of volunteer work.
AUTONOMOUS ACTIVITIES
Study of the topics, compulsory reading, consultation of basic bibliography. Preparation of works.
EVALUATION
Continuous and global written test, of a theoretical and practical nature. Delivery of the final version of the written volunteer essay.
5. Assessment system
FIRST CALL
Continuous Assessment: Students may take two continuous eliminatory tests. These written exams will consist of two questions each: A) writing an essay question that will consist of the analysis and comparison of a topic of the texts studied in class (60%); and B) four open-ended questions on syllabus concepts and/or on identifying citations aimed at reading tests (40%). The first test will take place during the 2nd week of March approximately and the second will take place on the last day of classes in May.
Global Assessment: it will comprise two parts, of the same characteristics indicated in the previous section. Students may submit a voluntary individual essay (1500-2000 words) on one of the works studied in class, in order to improve the exam grade by up to 1 point if a minimum of 5 has been reached in it. Plagiarism will be penalized.
SECOND CALL
Global assessment test of the same characteristics as in the first call. If the student has delivered the individual essay during the course, the grade will be saved, provided that it is equal to or greater than 5.
EVALUATION CRITERIA OF THE SUBJECT
Students must demonstrate, both in the exam and in their essays, that they:
- Use the English language with correction to a level C1.1.
- Correctly delimit and synthesize the characteristics of the periods and genres studied.
- Name and place authors, works, genres and literary trends appropriately.
- Analyze the texts rigorously, using the relevant critical tools.