EN 3870 surveys the major texts and contexts of twentieth century Irish writing in the English language.  A number of the writers whose work we will consider have earned a place among the past century’s most noted writers of world literature (Joyce in the novel; Yeats in poetry; Frank O’Connor in the short story; Shaw, Synge, and O’Casey in drama), and the course will conclude by considering the work of the two best known contemporary Irish writers, poet Seamus Heaney and playwright Brian Friel. Our study of Irish literature will involve the close reading of texts in conjunction with a much broader consideration of the culture from which they emerged. 

Authors and texts considered in prior incarnations of this course include: 

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

W.B. Yeats, Selected Poems

Seamus Heaney, Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996

Selected short fiction by Frank O'Connor, Liam O'Flaherty, Sean O'Faolain, Edna O'Brien, etc. 

Liam O'Flaherty, Famine

John Millington Synge, Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World

Sean O'Casey, Juno and the Paycock

Brian Friel, Translations