Welcome to English 281, Irish Literature. I have a great summer session planned out for us, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you while we explore this amazing literature both on this blog and face-to-face in the classroom. This blog will serve as the platform for our online discussions. Everyday, I will have questions posted to inspire your blog posts. Students will post eight blog posts over the course of the semester, but you should feel free to check the site periodically for updates and to see what other students are discussing. For more information on blog posting and how it factors into the course see the section on "Blog Posts"in our syllabus.
To get you comfortable with using the blog forum before our class starts, I would like students to post a little bit about themselves and try out a few fun ways to comment in blogger. I've asked you to make an attempt to post links, pictures, and videos, but don't feel discouraged if you can't figure out how to do so. To get started, click on the "comments" button and feel free to answer a few questions about yourself. I have some ideas listed below:
1) What's your name and your major?
2) Where are you from?
3) Do you have any experience studying Ireland and Irish literature? What interests you about Ireland and the literature? What literature courses have you taken in the past, and what were your experiences?
4) What's a website that you frequent? Why do you like it? Can you post a link?
5) What is one place in the world you would like to visit? Can you post a picture in your comment?
6) Can you post a funny video in your comment that always makes you laugh?
May 30th Discussion Questions
Angela Bourke, "Reading a Woman's Death," and Lady "Speranza" Wilde, Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland.
Your blog comments will be due on Wednesday, May 30th by 7:00 am. Blog comments should be roughly 250 words in length and contain at least one quote from the text. You may use the questions below for inspiration or develop your own response if you wish.
1) On page 568 of "Reading a Woman's Death," Angela Bourke writes how fairy stories were "an articulation of recent painful events in the terms of a metaphorical or euphemistic discourse which had long been used in the close-knit communities of rural Ireland as a way of dealing with the marginal and the transitional." What does she mean by that statement, and how do you see this at work in the stories collected by Lady Wilde? Make sure to provide examples.
2) On page 569, Bourke writes how raths or "fairy forts" are "sites of avoidance, overgrown and undisturbed, metaphors for areas of silence and circumvention in the social life of the communities which tell stories about them. They are places out of place; their time is out of time." What does she mean by this statement and how do you see this at work in some of the discussions of raths in Lady Wilde's stories? Make sure to provide examples.
3) How do you see issues of social class at work in both Angela Bourke's story of the burning of Bridget Cleary and the stories collected by Lady Wilde? Provide examples for your analysis.
4) Bourke suggests that we should reread the discourse of oral tradition, "particularly as it reflects women's and children's lives, with the transitions, gaps, and contradictions they contain" (556). What sort of rereading of these fairy stories is she asking us to undertake and why? What do the fairy stories collected by Lady Wilde suggest to us about the lives of women and children in rural Ireland? Provide examples to support your answer.
Your blog comments will be due on Wednesday, May 30th by 7:00 am. Blog comments should be roughly 250 words in length and contain at least one quote from the text. You may use the questions below for inspiration or develop your own response if you wish.
1) On page 568 of "Reading a Woman's Death," Angela Bourke writes how fairy stories were "an articulation of recent painful events in the terms of a metaphorical or euphemistic discourse which had long been used in the close-knit communities of rural Ireland as a way of dealing with the marginal and the transitional." What does she mean by that statement, and how do you see this at work in the stories collected by Lady Wilde? Make sure to provide examples.
2) On page 569, Bourke writes how raths or "fairy forts" are "sites of avoidance, overgrown and undisturbed, metaphors for areas of silence and circumvention in the social life of the communities which tell stories about them. They are places out of place; their time is out of time." What does she mean by this statement and how do you see this at work in some of the discussions of raths in Lady Wilde's stories? Make sure to provide examples.
3) How do you see issues of social class at work in both Angela Bourke's story of the burning of Bridget Cleary and the stories collected by Lady Wilde? Provide examples for your analysis.
4) Bourke suggests that we should reread the discourse of oral tradition, "particularly as it reflects women's and children's lives, with the transitions, gaps, and contradictions they contain" (556). What sort of rereading of these fairy stories is she asking us to undertake and why? What do the fairy stories collected by Lady Wilde suggest to us about the lives of women and children in rural Ireland? Provide examples to support your answer.
May 31st Discussion Questions
"The Child That Went With the Fairies," "The White Cat of Drumgunniol," and up to Chapter IX of "Carmilla"
Your blog comments will be due on Thursday, May 31st by 7:00 am. Blog comments should be roughly 250 words in length and contain at least one quote from the text. You may use the questions below for inspiration or develop your own response if you wish.
1) Sheridan Le Fanu wrote many of these stories in post-Famine Ireland. One of his stories even mentions how "the famine years made great changes" ("The White Cat" 5). In what ways do you see the aftermath of The Famine represented in these three stories?
2) What are some of the narrative differences you see between the stories transcribed and copied down by Lady Wilde and the fiction of Le Fanu? Compare and contrast the narrators within his stories and the various functions they serve.
3)The metaphor of the vampire is certainly a capacious one. In terms of "Carmilla," how might we see the metaphor of the vampire functioning in the Irish context? Who (or what) might Carmilla represent in the social, political, and economic sense? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
4) How would you characterize the modes of sexuality in this novel? How do we see identity being “queered” or “troubled” in this novel? Use examples from the text to explain your answer.
5) Freud describes the uncanny as "that class of frightening things which leads us back to what is known and familiar" ("The Uncanny" 195). How do we see the uncanny at work in this text?
Your blog comments will be due on Thursday, May 31st by 7:00 am. Blog comments should be roughly 250 words in length and contain at least one quote from the text. You may use the questions below for inspiration or develop your own response if you wish.
1) Sheridan Le Fanu wrote many of these stories in post-Famine Ireland. One of his stories even mentions how "the famine years made great changes" ("The White Cat" 5). In what ways do you see the aftermath of The Famine represented in these three stories?
2) What are some of the narrative differences you see between the stories transcribed and copied down by Lady Wilde and the fiction of Le Fanu? Compare and contrast the narrators within his stories and the various functions they serve.
3)The metaphor of the vampire is certainly a capacious one. In terms of "Carmilla," how might we see the metaphor of the vampire functioning in the Irish context? Who (or what) might Carmilla represent in the social, political, and economic sense? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
4) How would you characterize the modes of sexuality in this novel? How do we see identity being “queered” or “troubled” in this novel? Use examples from the text to explain your answer.
5) Freud describes the uncanny as "that class of frightening things which leads us back to what is known and familiar" ("The Uncanny" 195). How do we see the uncanny at work in this text?
June 1st Discussion Questions
"Carmilla" continued...
1) In "The Vampire in the House: Hysteria, Female Sexuality, and Female Knowledge in Le Fanu's 'Carmilla,'" Tamar Heller suggests Le Fanu’s Carmilla is an early version of what has become a very familiar script of the lesbian “vamp” devouring young girls. In this script, she writes, “Both the body of the lesbian and the mind of the victim she brainwashes are the site of a battle over who gets to define, and hence to control, femininity and its desires: women or the fathers, priests, and doctors who are the story’s male ‘knowers’” (80). What do you think she means by this statement? How do you see this sort of "script" functioning within Carmilla?
2) Angela Bourke suggests that cultures undergoing rapid modernization tend to "polarize" aspects that make up the social landscape: "tradition against law; country against town; men against women" (554). Where do you see these polarizing forces at work in "Carmilla"?
3) On page 571, Angela Bourke suggests that fairy stories are often "coded aggression against women." Where do you see this in the "Carmilla" story?
4) On page 578, Angela Bourke discusses how the fairy story "is rich in resources for the oblique discussion of sexuality." Given the harsh restrictions placed on female sexuality within late-Victorian culture, how does the vampire story allow for certain otherwise "unspeakable"aspects of female sexuality to emerge within narrative? Provide examples from "Carmilla" to help support your answer.
5) Sheridan Le Fanu is perhaps the first author to introduce the character of "the vampire hunter"--a character who would grow to be much more prominent in later vampire stories. The vampire hunter ranges from Van Helsing in Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Blade. Describe how Le Fanu characterizes the vampire hunter in "Carmilla." In what ways could the Anglo-Irish "folklorist" be a prototype for this character?
1) In "The Vampire in the House: Hysteria, Female Sexuality, and Female Knowledge in Le Fanu's 'Carmilla,'" Tamar Heller suggests Le Fanu’s Carmilla is an early version of what has become a very familiar script of the lesbian “vamp” devouring young girls. In this script, she writes, “Both the body of the lesbian and the mind of the victim she brainwashes are the site of a battle over who gets to define, and hence to control, femininity and its desires: women or the fathers, priests, and doctors who are the story’s male ‘knowers’” (80). What do you think she means by this statement? How do you see this sort of "script" functioning within Carmilla?
2) Angela Bourke suggests that cultures undergoing rapid modernization tend to "polarize" aspects that make up the social landscape: "tradition against law; country against town; men against women" (554). Where do you see these polarizing forces at work in "Carmilla"?
3) On page 571, Angela Bourke suggests that fairy stories are often "coded aggression against women." Where do you see this in the "Carmilla" story?
4) On page 578, Angela Bourke discusses how the fairy story "is rich in resources for the oblique discussion of sexuality." Given the harsh restrictions placed on female sexuality within late-Victorian culture, how does the vampire story allow for certain otherwise "unspeakable"aspects of female sexuality to emerge within narrative? Provide examples from "Carmilla" to help support your answer.
5) Sheridan Le Fanu is perhaps the first author to introduce the character of "the vampire hunter"--a character who would grow to be much more prominent in later vampire stories. The vampire hunter ranges from Van Helsing in Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Blade. Describe how Le Fanu characterizes the vampire hunter in "Carmilla." In what ways could the Anglo-Irish "folklorist" be a prototype for this character?
June 4th Discussion Questions
W. B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight and Selected Poems
1) Much of what we will discuss this week will revolve around the idea of modernism. According to John Jervis in Transgressing the Modern, "Modernism
can either push forward, disavow the past, press on insistently towards a
future it can only celebrate but never realize…or it can explore the new
through the fragments of a past that can only ever be juxtaposed, recombined,
with a reflexive awareness that their ‘pastness’ is indeed forever
unattainable, thus feeding into a nostalgia for meaning and origin that appears
resolutely ‘un-modernist’ but has always been there as modernism’s shadow”
(75). What do you think Jervis means by this description and how do you see this at work in Yeats' Celtic Twilight and some of his poems? Where do you see "nostalgia" in Yeats' work? How do you see Yeats' constructing Ireland in juxtaposition to modernity? Provide examples.
2) We spent a great deal of time last week discussing "the colonizer's gaze," and in particular how Anglo-Irish writers tend to construct the Irish as "dreamy," "romantic," "mystical," "simple-minded," and yet "educated." We also discussed how Anglo-Irish writers constructed Ireland as exclusively rural, pastoral, "misty," and lonely, sometimes even desolate. Where do you see such constructions in Yeats' work. In what ways are his constructions different than Lady Wilde and Le Fanu and in what ways are they similar?
3) Yeats always had a complicated relationship with women within his lifetime, in particular with Maud Gonne--the subject of several of his poems. How does Yeats construct women in The Celtic Twilight and in some of his poems?
4) In A Vision, Yeats describes history as two widening gyres intersecting into one another at the narrowest point. This intersection does not necessarily denote a passage into chaos, but into another dimension, an alternate state of consciousness, a new world. How do you see this world-view functioning in The Celtic Twilight and in some of his poems, in particular "The Second Coming"?
5) Yeats was a member of the The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn--an occultist sort of society--and later he and his wife Georgie became practitioners of "Automatic Writing," which was a way of channeling "the spirits" in a trance-like state onto paper. Some of his most famous poems--"The Second Coming" and "Sailing to Byzantium"--are supposedly from the work of automatic writing. How are we to read Yeats' encounters with the so-called "spirit world" or "faery haunts" in The Celtic Twilight and in some of his poems? Do you think these experiences are authentic, or are they, as some critics press, manifestations of his subconscious mind?
June 5th Discussion Questions
J. M. Synge The Playboy of the Western World
1) How is J. M. Synge's play a "vampire" story? Explain your answer.
2) What sort of hero is Christy Mahon?
3) J. M. Synge's Playboy is famous for inciting riots both in Dublin and amongst Irish-American audiences in Philadelphia. Irish nationalist leader Arthur Griffith called it "a vile and inhuman story told in the foulest language we have ever listened to from a public platform." Why do you think audiences, particularly Irish audiences, found this play so offensive?
4) What is the portrayal of women in this play? How might it compare to portrayals of Irish femininity in other texts we have read so far?
1) How is J. M. Synge's play a "vampire" story? Explain your answer.
2) What sort of hero is Christy Mahon?
3) J. M. Synge's Playboy is famous for inciting riots both in Dublin and amongst Irish-American audiences in Philadelphia. Irish nationalist leader Arthur Griffith called it "a vile and inhuman story told in the foulest language we have ever listened to from a public platform." Why do you think audiences, particularly Irish audiences, found this play so offensive?
4) What is the portrayal of women in this play? How might it compare to portrayals of Irish femininity in other texts we have read so far?
June 6th Online Discussion: James Joyce's "Araby" and "The Dead"
Guidelines for Online Discussion
1) Students must compose ONE post by 12:00 pm (noon). This initial post should follow some of the basic guidelines for blog posts, but should also incorporate some of the ideas we discussed in class on how to improve our literary analysis attempts (more examples, explaining key terms, elaborating on what it is about you and your experience that informs your position, etc). Make sure to end your post with a few questions to help generate discussion.
2) Students must compose TWO "follow-up" posts by 8:00 pm Wednesday evening. These posts should be roughly between 250-500 words and you should address at least one other student's question.
You may address one of the questions below for your posts, or feel free to develop your own ideas.
1) In class, we discussed the ways in which Yeats has a tendency in The Celtic Twilight to construct a vision of Irish women as "pure," "beautiful," "white," and "gleaming." Where do we see such "visions" in Joyce's stories? How does Joyce break down these constructions?
2) We cannot talk about Joyce without talking about the "epiphany." According to the linked article, epiphanies (as Joyce used the concept) are "a sudden and momentary showing forth or disclosure of one’s authentic inner self. This disclosure might manifest itself in vulgarities of speech, or gestures, or memorable phases of the mind." Where do you see moments of "epiphanies" in Joyce's stories? As much as Joyce disdained Yeats and his work, can we see a connection between Yeats' visions and spiritual "seeking" and Joyce's epiphanies? In what ways are they different? Have you ever had an epiphany? What was it? How did it compare to the epiphanies in Joyce's stories?
3) These excerpts from Dubliners have been the course's first glimpse into Irish urban life. How does Joyce describe the city of Dublin? In what ways is it its own character in these stories? How does it differ from the rural, pastoral constructions of Ireland we've seen in the previous works we've read?
4) In "The Dead," Gabriel seems ambivalent about Irish nationalism and has a tense exchange with Miss Ivors about the Irish language and Gabriel's refusal to visit the "west" of Ireland. What happens in that exchange and why do you think Gabriel is so intent on setting himself apart from his Irish family and companions?
5) At the end of "The Dead," we hear Gretta's story of Michael Furey, and later Gabriel catches a glimpse of his ghost. What is the significance of the ghost of Michael Furey? What might he symbolize in this story? Compare his presence to other "ghosts" we have read throughout the semester, or examine the presence of Michael's ghost using the theories from Gordan Avery and Derrida we discussed in class.
1) Students must compose ONE post by 12:00 pm (noon). This initial post should follow some of the basic guidelines for blog posts, but should also incorporate some of the ideas we discussed in class on how to improve our literary analysis attempts (more examples, explaining key terms, elaborating on what it is about you and your experience that informs your position, etc). Make sure to end your post with a few questions to help generate discussion.
2) Students must compose TWO "follow-up" posts by 8:00 pm Wednesday evening. These posts should be roughly between 250-500 words and you should address at least one other student's question.
You may address one of the questions below for your posts, or feel free to develop your own ideas.
1) In class, we discussed the ways in which Yeats has a tendency in The Celtic Twilight to construct a vision of Irish women as "pure," "beautiful," "white," and "gleaming." Where do we see such "visions" in Joyce's stories? How does Joyce break down these constructions?
2) We cannot talk about Joyce without talking about the "epiphany." According to the linked article, epiphanies (as Joyce used the concept) are "a sudden and momentary showing forth or disclosure of one’s authentic inner self. This disclosure might manifest itself in vulgarities of speech, or gestures, or memorable phases of the mind." Where do you see moments of "epiphanies" in Joyce's stories? As much as Joyce disdained Yeats and his work, can we see a connection between Yeats' visions and spiritual "seeking" and Joyce's epiphanies? In what ways are they different? Have you ever had an epiphany? What was it? How did it compare to the epiphanies in Joyce's stories?
3) These excerpts from Dubliners have been the course's first glimpse into Irish urban life. How does Joyce describe the city of Dublin? In what ways is it its own character in these stories? How does it differ from the rural, pastoral constructions of Ireland we've seen in the previous works we've read?
4) In "The Dead," Gabriel seems ambivalent about Irish nationalism and has a tense exchange with Miss Ivors about the Irish language and Gabriel's refusal to visit the "west" of Ireland. What happens in that exchange and why do you think Gabriel is so intent on setting himself apart from his Irish family and companions?
5) At the end of "The Dead," we hear Gretta's story of Michael Furey, and later Gabriel catches a glimpse of his ghost. What is the significance of the ghost of Michael Furey? What might he symbolize in this story? Compare his presence to other "ghosts" we have read throughout the semester, or examine the presence of Michael's ghost using the theories from Gordan Avery and Derrida we discussed in class.
June 7th Discussion Questions
"The Withering Branch" and "The Year 1912"
1) How do you see Irish mythology and the "fairy world" reflected in O'Cadhain stories? What purpose do these references serve?
2) What does "the trunk" come to represent in the story "The Year 1912"?
3) The early to mid 20th century in Ireland was a time of intense economic hardship and massive emigration. Many young people were not permitted to marry due to such economic constraints and as men fled Ireland to seek their fortune in America, many women in particular remained single and unmarried. You can see the kind of intense sexual and romantic longing reflected in the tragic song "He Moved Through the Fair," sang by Sinead O'Connor in this video: http://youtu.be/8DQnS18EeWM
Written around 1909, the song echoes a deep sense of loss and heartache. How do you see the results of Irish economic conditions in these stories?
1) How do you see Irish mythology and the "fairy world" reflected in O'Cadhain stories? What purpose do these references serve?
2) What does "the trunk" come to represent in the story "The Year 1912"?
3) The early to mid 20th century in Ireland was a time of intense economic hardship and massive emigration. Many young people were not permitted to marry due to such economic constraints and as men fled Ireland to seek their fortune in America, many women in particular remained single and unmarried. You can see the kind of intense sexual and romantic longing reflected in the tragic song "He Moved Through the Fair," sang by Sinead O'Connor in this video: http://youtu.be/8DQnS18EeWM
Written around 1909, the song echoes a deep sense of loss and heartache. How do you see the results of Irish economic conditions in these stories?
June 8th Discussion Questions
Seamus Heaney "Station Island"
1) In "Station Island," Seamus Heaney is confronted by a series of ghosts. Chose one section from Station Island and do a close reading of the presence of a particular spectre. What does the ghost say? What is Heaney's reaction? What is the significance of "the haunting" in that section? Remember from your handout what Avery Gordon says about "haunting" and the way in which they are instances "when home becomes unfamiliar, when your bearings on the world lose direction, when the over-and-done-with comes alive, when what's been in your blind spot comes into view" (from Ghostly Matters xvi). How would you describe the particular nature of the "haunting" in that section?
2) In the same handout, Jacques Derrida discusses how living with the ghost can be a sort of "being-with the other...and this being-with specters would also be, not only but also, a politics of memory, of inheritance, and of generations" (from Specters of Marx xviii-xix). What does Derrida mean by this statment and how do you see this idea of "being-with" playing out thematically within "Station Island"? Could we extend this reading of Derrida and "Station Island" to the nature of "The Troubles" in Ireland?
3) In the final section of "Station Island," Heaney meets with the ghost of James Joyce. What does Joyce tell Heaney? Do you agree with Heaney's final conclusions?
1) In "Station Island," Seamus Heaney is confronted by a series of ghosts. Chose one section from Station Island and do a close reading of the presence of a particular spectre. What does the ghost say? What is Heaney's reaction? What is the significance of "the haunting" in that section? Remember from your handout what Avery Gordon says about "haunting" and the way in which they are instances "when home becomes unfamiliar, when your bearings on the world lose direction, when the over-and-done-with comes alive, when what's been in your blind spot comes into view" (from Ghostly Matters xvi). How would you describe the particular nature of the "haunting" in that section?
2) In the same handout, Jacques Derrida discusses how living with the ghost can be a sort of "being-with the other...and this being-with specters would also be, not only but also, a politics of memory, of inheritance, and of generations" (from Specters of Marx xviii-xix). What does Derrida mean by this statment and how do you see this idea of "being-with" playing out thematically within "Station Island"? Could we extend this reading of Derrida and "Station Island" to the nature of "The Troubles" in Ireland?
3) In the final section of "Station Island," Heaney meets with the ghost of James Joyce. What does Joyce tell Heaney? Do you agree with Heaney's final conclusions?
June 11th Discussion Questions
Selections from Midwife to the Fairies by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and selected poems by Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill
1) Angela Bourke writes how "although women characters are found prominently in fairy legends, and many legends are told by women, women's voices as subjects within them are relatively scarce" (572). She sees writers such as Ni Dhomhnaill and Ni Dhuibhne as performing an act of "resistance" in their works and "rewriting" the woman's subject position in fairy stories. Where do you see that work taking place in both of the women writers we have read?
2) What is the significance of Ni Dhuibhne's splicing of traditional folklore with the contemporary story in "Midwife to the Fairies"?
3) Ni Dhomhnaill has made a concerted political choice not to write in English, and instead she writes in the Irish language and has other poets translate her work. She stated once in an interview, "One of the things that causes me to get up in the morning is the desire to take Irish back from that grey-faced Irish revivalist male preserve." Why do you think she has chosen to write in Irish? Why do you think this choice is both a political choice and an act of female empowerment? Where do you see this kind of female empowerment in her work?
1) Angela Bourke writes how "although women characters are found prominently in fairy legends, and many legends are told by women, women's voices as subjects within them are relatively scarce" (572). She sees writers such as Ni Dhomhnaill and Ni Dhuibhne as performing an act of "resistance" in their works and "rewriting" the woman's subject position in fairy stories. Where do you see that work taking place in both of the women writers we have read?
2) What is the significance of Ni Dhuibhne's splicing of traditional folklore with the contemporary story in "Midwife to the Fairies"?
3) Ni Dhomhnaill has made a concerted political choice not to write in English, and instead she writes in the Irish language and has other poets translate her work. She stated once in an interview, "One of the things that causes me to get up in the morning is the desire to take Irish back from that grey-faced Irish revivalist male preserve." Why do you think she has chosen to write in Irish? Why do you think this choice is both a political choice and an act of female empowerment? Where do you see this kind of female empowerment in her work?
June 12th Discussion Questions
Conor McPherson's The Weir
1) In The Weir, we have folk tales being told in a contemporary setting. Why do you think these stories persist? Why do these stories continue to be told? Are they an extension of what Angela Bourke discusses in her essay--that they are "a way of dealing with the marginal and the transitional"? How so? Do these stories serve other purposes? Explain your answer.
2) At the end of Valerie's ghost story, the men make an attempt to "explain away" her experience, but Valerie is resistant. Why is that? Do you think it might be related to what Derrida says about "learn[ing] to live with ghosts, in the upkeep, the conversation, the company, or the companionship, in the commerce without the commerce of ghosts" (Specters of Marx xviii-xix).
3) The title of the play is The Weir, and Finbar explains that the weir was built in 1951 as a way "to regulate the water for generating power for the area." How does this idea of "the weir" reveal itself thematically in the play?
4) Both in Ni Duibhne's story "Newgrange" and The Weir tell of German tourists. How do both texts treat these tourists and how does Ireland as a "tourist destination" change the way the Irish see themselves in these works?
5) Jack says of his last story that it "wasn't a ghostly story" (67). Do you think that's completely true? Jack also says, "We'll all be ghosts soon enough" (67). How might you relate what Jack says here to the end of James Joyce's "The Dead"?
1) In The Weir, we have folk tales being told in a contemporary setting. Why do you think these stories persist? Why do these stories continue to be told? Are they an extension of what Angela Bourke discusses in her essay--that they are "a way of dealing with the marginal and the transitional"? How so? Do these stories serve other purposes? Explain your answer.
2) At the end of Valerie's ghost story, the men make an attempt to "explain away" her experience, but Valerie is resistant. Why is that? Do you think it might be related to what Derrida says about "learn[ing] to live with ghosts, in the upkeep, the conversation, the company, or the companionship, in the commerce without the commerce of ghosts" (Specters of Marx xviii-xix).
3) The title of the play is The Weir, and Finbar explains that the weir was built in 1951 as a way "to regulate the water for generating power for the area." How does this idea of "the weir" reveal itself thematically in the play?
4) Both in Ni Duibhne's story "Newgrange" and The Weir tell of German tourists. How do both texts treat these tourists and how does Ireland as a "tourist destination" change the way the Irish see themselves in these works?
5) Jack says of his last story that it "wasn't a ghostly story" (67). Do you think that's completely true? Jack also says, "We'll all be ghosts soon enough" (67). How might you relate what Jack says here to the end of James Joyce's "The Dead"?
June 13th Discussion Questions
For this "free" blog, use this space as an opportunity to begin a "zero draft" or "discovery draft" for your final reflective essay. A zero draft is your "first attempt" at a piece of writing and should be a place where you discover what it is you want to say. In other words, rather than having an already formed thought or focus, use your writing here as a means of discovery. You should not be concerned about formulating ideas, grammar, spelling, or punctuation. This is free-writing at its most "free." I'll provide the prompt of the Reflective Essay below, but feel free to free-write on any subject related to the course. You may also just want to choose one or two questions and free-write on those.
How
have we treated some of the major figures of the Irish literary canon and what
sort of questions did we explore in our discussion of them? How have you come to understand the fairy,
ghost, and vampire as “signifiers to larger historical, cultural, and social
issues” and what has that come to mean to you?
How have various aspects of literary theory become useful lenses through
which to view literature (and perhaps other “texts,” i.e. film, TV shows,
etc.), and how has the work of close-reading within class discussion, blogs,
and your own papers changed the way you might approach literature in the
future? Finally, what has been your
experience with the production of
literary analysis such as discussions, blogging, and presentations? How have you worked to revise your original
essay and what has that process been like for you? Finally, what has been the most meaningful
literary text, film, or concept that you will take away from this course and
why?
June 14th Discussion Questions
Martin McDonagh's In Bruges
1) One thing we see in McDonagh's In Bruges is the effects of globalization and the lack of national "boundaries" within the European context. Several cultures are brought together in In Bruges--the Belgian people, naturally, but also Irish, English, American, and Canadian. Describe some of the interactions you see and how McDonagh's film analyzes and breaks down national boundaries.
2) In one seen, Ken and Ray examine a painting called The Last Judgment by Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516). You can examine the painting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bosch_laatste_oordeel_drieluik.jpg What is the significance of this painting in context with the film?
3) Many characters in In Bruges describe the city as looking like a "fairy tale." Given our discussions in class, what is the significance of this description?
4) In an article from The Guardian, the author writes,
Growing up with a childhood dominated across the Irish Sea by the Troubles, McDonagh was innately suspicious of the IRA's armed campaign. He later told the Irish critic and columnist Fintan O'Toole that "I was always coming from a leftwing or pacifist or anarchist angle that started with punk, and which was against all nationalisms."
"McDonagh's work in the theatre and now on film has been powerful, legitimate and relevant," said Damien Smyth, one of Northern Ireland's leading poets.
"When JM Synge wrote Playboy of the Western World there was more outrage in Ireland over a woman coming on to the stage in her nightdress than the murder of the father by the son. McDonagh has made people think about the reality of violence. It is all the more relevant because although he sets some of the plays in a traditional setting, the rural west, the violence he portrays is a very true picture of parts of modern urban Ireland today."
As violent as McDonagh's work may be, do we see a pacifist message emerging from the film In Bruges? Where? Explain your answer.
1) One thing we see in McDonagh's In Bruges is the effects of globalization and the lack of national "boundaries" within the European context. Several cultures are brought together in In Bruges--the Belgian people, naturally, but also Irish, English, American, and Canadian. Describe some of the interactions you see and how McDonagh's film analyzes and breaks down national boundaries.
2) In one seen, Ken and Ray examine a painting called The Last Judgment by Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516). You can examine the painting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bosch_laatste_oordeel_drieluik.jpg What is the significance of this painting in context with the film?
3) Many characters in In Bruges describe the city as looking like a "fairy tale." Given our discussions in class, what is the significance of this description?
4) In an article from The Guardian, the author writes,
Growing up with a childhood dominated across the Irish Sea by the Troubles, McDonagh was innately suspicious of the IRA's armed campaign. He later told the Irish critic and columnist Fintan O'Toole that "I was always coming from a leftwing or pacifist or anarchist angle that started with punk, and which was against all nationalisms."
"McDonagh's work in the theatre and now on film has been powerful, legitimate and relevant," said Damien Smyth, one of Northern Ireland's leading poets.
"When JM Synge wrote Playboy of the Western World there was more outrage in Ireland over a woman coming on to the stage in her nightdress than the murder of the father by the son. McDonagh has made people think about the reality of violence. It is all the more relevant because although he sets some of the plays in a traditional setting, the rural west, the violence he portrays is a very true picture of parts of modern urban Ireland today."
As violent as McDonagh's work may be, do we see a pacifist message emerging from the film In Bruges? Where? Explain your answer.
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