Program Overview

Course Overview

The course "Literatura Irlandesa siglos XX y XXI" (Irish Literature of the 20th and 21st Centuries) is a comprehensive program designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of Irish literature from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Course Details

• Course Title: Literatura Irlandesa siglos XX y XXI
• Coordinator: Javiera Ossandón
• Duration: 16 hours
• Weekly Commitment: 1 session, 2 hours
• Number of Vacancies: 15
• Modality: Remote/online
• Schedule: Mondays, 18:30 - 20:30 hours
• Certificate: The course includes a certificate from the University of Chile.

Course Objectives

The course aims to deliver a general overview of Irish literature from the 20th and 21st centuries through a selection of literary works in their original language. It examines concepts and a variety of literary genres, including short stories, poetry, novels, memoirs, and drama, in their aesthetic and cultural dimensions to generate critical and reflective thinking about the different realities of the territory and periods.

Methodology

• The course consists of a review and discussion of one or two authors around a specific theme related to Irish culture.
• Although the program specifies a main text for each selected author, participants are only required to read a selection of pages announced in advance for each session.
• All texts are in their original English; sufficient command of this language is an essential requirement for participating in the course.
• All texts will be available in a shared drive folder that will be shared with participants before the start of the course.

Course Outline

• Class 1: Introduction
  • Introduction to Irish Literature
  • Review of the program
  • Historical, literary, and artistic context
  • Presentation of the course's main question: Why study Irish literature in Chile in the 21st century?
• Class 2: Modernism and Politics
  • The role of the Irish nationalist struggle in early 20th-century literature
  • Literary and aesthetic strategies of Irish modernism
  • Main readings: James Joyce, W. B. Yeats
• Class 3: History and Nature
  • The role of history in Irish poetry
  • How Heaney links the natural world with sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland
  • Main reading: Seamus Heaney
• Class 4: Violence and the City
  • The presentation of the relationship between the individual and violence in Northern Irish literature
  • The role of the city in the manifestation of insecurity during the sectarian conflict
  • Main readings: Ciaran Carson, Anna Burns
• Class 5: Gender and the Domestic I
  • The traditional link between the feminine and nationalism in Irish literature
  • How Boland breaks with this tradition in her memoir
  • Main reading: Eavan Boland
• Class 6: Gender and the Domestic II
  • The perspective of women linked to domestic spaces in 20th-century Irish literature
  • How this relationship has changed in the 21st century
  • Main readings: Vona Groarke, Doireann Ní Ghríofa
• Class 7: Migration and Identity
  • The link between identity and nationality formed in the poetry of expatriation
  • Challenges emerging from incorporating the migrant perspective in stories
  • Main readings: Sinead Morrissey, Roddy Doyle
• Class 8: Memory
  • How Irish theater allows us to interrogate Ireland's colonial legacy today
  • How contemporary Irish literature examines the relationship between the past and the present
  • Main readings: Brian Friel, Claire Keegan

About the Professor

• Francisca Fernández Arce: Magister in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture, University of York. Diploma in Aesthetics and Philosophy, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Currently pursuing her doctoral studies in contemporary Irish literature at the University of York and working as an editorial assistant for the academic journal English Studies in Latin America (ESLA) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Additional Information

• The course will be conducted virtually.
• It will start once the minimum quota of six enrolled students is reached.
• The program contemplates a weekly meeting at the indicated schedule, with sessions lasting two hours including a short intermediate break.
• More detailed content of the programs can be reviewed on the website of the Centro de Lenguas y Culturas del Mundo.