ENGL 363-01, Topics in Twentieth-Century British Literature - Staging “The Troubles”: Politics and War in Twentieth-Century Irish Theater and Film, Fall 2015

Abstract

This course will explore selected theatrical and filmic treatments of the Irish “Troubles” of the past century. “The Troubles” has been used in Ireland for the past 125 years to denote the island’s political violence and attendant ethno-nationalist strife (in 1905, for example, Irish author James Joyce wrote of “the troubles in our native land”). Instances of this political strife include the struggle for Irish independence from British imperial rule (the failed rebellion of 1798, the Easter Rising of 1916, and the Anglo-Irish War of 1919-21, for example); the Irish Civil War (1922-23); and the fight for civil/equal rights in Northern Ireland (1968-1998). This course will consider both canonical and contemporary Irish plays, films, and songs that depict, anatomize, and critique “the troubles” and its myriad sociocultural ramifications. It will explore the extent to which selected plays and films engage in a dialogue with various political movements and events, with each other, and with key articulations of Irish (and Northern Irish) national identity. The course will incorporate major critical readings/debates.