123046 PS PS Literary Studies (2024S)

The late great Irish poet Eavan Boland said in a 2018 interview: “Poetry has always changed with the changing world. If it doesn’t, it will run the risk of not being a living language.” Given the shifts in Irish life in the past three decades, such as impact of the Celtic Tiger and the economic crash of 2008 or the social justice movements of the 2010s, one must ask: What is this living language of poetry saying now? And who is saying – writing, composing, performing – Irish verse today? What media and forms are shaping Irish poetries? How is Irish poetry engaging with current political and societal issues, such as those mentioned above? How are poets negotiating questions of nation, gender, belonging, and identity?

We will try to answer these questions and more together in this proseminar. The focus will be on post-Celtic Tiger English-language verse (2008-), though examples from earlier decades will provide useful context. The semester will take us through various forms, exploring poetry on the page, verse dramas, spoken word shows, poetry performances, poetry films, songs, and extracts from verse novels. We will identify common themes in contemporary Irish verse and analyse how these are explored and expressed on the page or stage through language and performance.

In this course, students will familiarise themselves with contemporary Irish verse, its remit and questions as discussed above. Additionally, this course devotes significant time to the honing of students’ skills as academic communicators, in speech and in writing. Students will be introduced to various analytical methods and critical theories and learn how to engage with these in their own work. By the end of this course, students will be able to write a term paper, that means: find a topic, formulate a research question and a thesis, structure a research paper, and engage in textual analyses based on close reading/listening/viewing and supported by critical literature. Students will be able to use research methodology, follow the guidelines of a style sheet, and cite correctly. We will also reflect on good academic practices including plagiarism awareness and concerns around the use of AI in academic writing.