INTR 238 - The Irish World in Music, Literature, and History

Credits: 1

Orientation and preparation for the ensuing spring term course in Ireland, MUS 238/ENGL 238. Prerequisite: instructor consent. This seminar immerses students in the literature, music, religious traditions, history, and culture of Ireland through a range of media and methods. The primary focus is on Irish musical traditions and literary expressions, from the pre-historic period to the modern day, with a particular emphasis on how place impacts the creation of literature and music and the related folklore traditions. Through literary readings (both primary and secondary), texts of cultural history, memoir, and folklore, through film (an increasingly potent form of expression in Ireland), and works of traditional and modern music, we seek to understand the major movements in Ireland that led to its great cultural achievements in the 20th century as well as the religious and spiritual issues and tensions that run throughout Irish literature and culture.