Literature of the Irish Revival
Dr Wim Van Mierlo
Course description
This course looks at a number of texts and figures (with an emphasis on theater) of the Irish Revival from the turn of the century to the late 1920s. The Revival was a cultural project of modernization that intended to create a literature expressing an indigenous Irish spirit by returning to the country's Celtic origins. We will read the work of a number of figures that were instrumental in shaping the Revival (W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory) and look at the role The Abbey Theatre, opened in 1904, played in the development of the movement. Most of the discussion will evolve around the conflicts that were inherent to the Revival (Catholicism/Protestantism, rural/urban, morality/aesthetics, nationalism/art, modernism/traditionalism), and which manifested themselves most notably in the “Playboy” riots sparked by Synge's play and in the nationalist the rejection of Yeats's aestheticism. We will end by looking at James Joyce, a writer who personally despised the ideological agenda of the Revival but who, besides Yeats, was most influential in creating a “new” Irish literature.
Reading List
W.B. Yeats: The Major Works , ed. Edward Larrissy (Oxford University Press, Oxford World's Classics)
Modern Irish Drama , ed. John P. Harrington (Norton Critical Edition)
James Joyce, Dubliners
Syllabus
4 Oct. |
WBY, “Dust hath Closed Helen's Eye”; “And Fair, Fierce Women”; “The Adoration of the Magi”; The Wind among the Reeds ; In the Seven Woods
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11 Oct. |
WBY, Deirdre (1907 )
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18 Oct. |
“27 December 1904—The Opening of the Abbey Theatre” LG, Spreading the News
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25 Oct. |
“27 December 1904—The Opening of the Abbey Theatre”; cont'd WBY, On Baile's Strand
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8 Nov. |
LG, The Rising of the Moon and Our Irish Theatre
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15 Nov. |
JMS, Riders to the Sea and Playboy of the Western World
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22 Nov. |
Sean O'Casey, Juno and the Paycock
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29 Nov. |
WBY, Responsibilities; The Wild Swans at Coole
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6 Dec. |
WBY, The Tower; The Winding Stair
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13 Dec. |
JJ, Dubliners (“Sisters” through “The Boarding House”); “Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages”
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20 Dec. |
JJ, Dubliners (“A Little Cloud” through “The Dead”)
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Images
Abbey Theatre, Dublin (around 1930)
Thoor Ballylee, W.B. Yeats's home near Gort, Co. Galway
W.B. Yeats, The Secret Rose (1897)
W.B. Yeats, The Wind Among the Reeds, cover by Althea Gyles (1899)
W.B. Yeats, The Wild Swans at Coole, cover of the 1917 Dun Emer edition
W.B. Yeats, The Wild Swans at Coole, cover of the 1919 Macmillan edition
W.B. Yeats, The Winding Stair (1933)
W.B. Yeats, The Tower, design by T. Sturge Moore (1928)
Pages created 24 September 2004, Wim Van Mierlo
