James Joyce and Samuel Beckett are the towering figures of Irish literary modernism, so this course begins with Joyce's Dubliners and ends with Beckett's minimalist later plays. But the aim is to restore these writers to their historical context by examining key works by their precursors and contemporaries, including Oscar Wilde's plays, fiction, and essays, W.B. Yeats's poetry, and Elizabeth Bowen's novels and short stories. Central to the course is the tug-of-war between modernist cosmopolitanism and Irish nationalism, and the complicated ways in which these rival tendencies both thwarted and abetted one another. The battlegrounds of religion, class, and gender will also engage our attention, along with the cultural consequences of the Irish policy of neutrality during World War II. Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: one 8- and one 12-page paper. Prerequisites: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25). (Post-1900)

Hour: ELLMANN