ENGL 388 - Exploring the West of Ireland

Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2012 and alternate years

Prerequisites: ENGL 299 and two courses at the 300-level in English or permission of instructor.Spring term abroad course. An immersion in the literature, history, politics, and culture of Ireland, specifically the traditional, rural west of Ireland. We spend four weeks in the southwest of Ireland, based in Tralee, County Kerry, and travel throughout the southwestern region of Ireland, focusing on the relations between the land and the literature. Site visits include a wide range of pre-historic, Celtic, early Christian, Norman, Medieval, Georgian and 19th, 20th, and 21st-century sites. Readings include medieval and modern Irish poetry, works of fairy-tale, folk-tale, and mythology, the Blasket storytellers, and the great modern writers W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge, and Lady Gregory.Conner.