English 372 - Anglo-Irish Literature                                                                                                                        Spring 2007
William FitzGerald

Overview
    I invite you to consider the poetic and dramatic works associated with the Irish Literary Renaissance, whose origins begin in the poetry and prose of the Celtic Twilight, spearheaded by W. B. Yeats in the 1890s, and whose mature flowering is the drama associated with the Abbey Theatre, founded in 1904. Thus far we have read a number of works that either represent these overlapping developments or otherwise suggest the literary and political contexts out of which (and against which) these movements developed.

    Entering the critical conversation about these works, write a literary analysis (3-4 pp.) that responds to the early poetry of Yeats; or to one or more of the five 'Abbey' plays we have read; or to the experimental fiction of Joyce's Dubliners; or, most generally, to the representations of Ireland and Irishness that these texts and/or earlier texts manifest or challenge. As is the case with any argument, your analysis should advance a cogent claim (or thesis) about your subject and support that claim through evidence, effectively provided, from the text(s). Beyond this argumentative 'core', your essay should engage its readers through reasoned discourse, precise language, concrete observation, specific references to texts, and a lucid, lively style.


Practicalities (Requirements and Timetable)

Requirements:
-- informative title
-- MLA format for in-text citations and list of Works Cited;
-- double-spaced, 1 inch margins, 10 or 12 pt. font;
-- name, date and page number on each page;
-- a cover sheet, informal in style is ok, in which you identify goals for the paper, e.g.,"In this paper I want to show..."
    and also discuss any particular challenges you encountered in doing so;
-- a penultimate editing/proofreading draft you have scanned carefully for error

Timetable:
-- topic (in a several sentence statement of interest) due Thursday, February 15;
-- paper (hardcopy of both proofreading + final draft) due in class on Thursday, Feb. 22;
-- also send e-copy attached file (YOURNAME#1) to wfitz@camden.rutgers.edu;
    this copy will allow others in the class to read and respond to your draft.


Suggested Lines of Thought
Consider these questions and suggested themes below as starting points; you are welcome to develop them further or take a different direction entirely. Whatever your subject, I advise that you choose something within the text, something small but substantive that offers opportunity for 'close reading', i.e., a line of two of poetry, a brief exchange of dialogue, an aspect of setting or stagecraft, a critical observation that becomes a central focus of your analysis. Your thesis, then, can set that textual point of focus within a broader interpretive context by demonstrating its significance for understanding one or more creative works.

--In what ways does Yeats' turn to the mythical within his late Romantic poetry signal a new course in representing Irish culture to Ireland and to a wider world? If you were to set one or more of his Celtic poems against those of earlier bards and balladeers, Moore or Mangan, what stands out in relief? What does a poem like "The Stolen Child" or "Song of the Wandering Aengus," in style, subject matter and imagery, implicitly argue for as a vision of Irish identity and culture? For that matter, how does the Ireland to which Yeats addresses his poem "To Ireland in the Coming Times" compare with other bardic emblems such as dear Erin, dark Rosaleen, or Cathleen ni Houlihan?

--How and to what ends does Yeats/Gregory employ character in Cathleen ni Houlihan? To what particular audiences and to what particular agendas does Yeats employ his art in this play? How do setting and stage direction contribute to the overall message of this play?

--Lady Gregory is regularly hailed for the brilliance of her dialogue and the expertise of her diction, especially her use of dialect to poetic effect. How does her use of language--in the delineation of character and in any overarching political and cultural arguments that language serves--figure in either or both of her plays that we read?

--What other aspects of Rising of the Moon most invite critical attention? In what ways does this play invite (or repel) the sympathies of its various audiences? How does its title figure?

--In what ways does Lady Gregory's Spreading the News go beyond the 'merely' farcical in its treatment of misunderstanding, rumor, and false accusation. What elements of the play lead yo to think that Gregory had a more serious purpose behind her comical treatment of the subject?

--Synge's 1904 offering, Riders to the Sea, remains one of the most powerful, evocative short plays in the English dramatic repertoire. Some critics have remarked that its overall effect is one that calls to mind the tragic drama of classical Greece. Is it accurate or helpful to think of this play in terms of tragedy? What roles do fate (and fatalism) play in the unfolding of the drama or in the meaning we ascribe to it? How do aspects of the pagan interact with the explicit Christian elements in Riders?

--How does the character of Christy Mahon change during Playboy of the Western World? Who is he at its commencement? at his conclusion? What causes his transformation, if you believe that there is one?

--Similarly, how are we to regard Pegeen Mike's condition (and her understanding of it) at the play's conclusion? What is that she has lost in losing her 'playboy'? gained?

--A close look at two of Playboy's peripheral characters, Jimmy Farrell and Philly Cullen, reveals that they are more a study in opposites than a simple doubling in representing local perspectives on Christy. Examining these two figures closely, discuss how they signify for Synge as representations of rural Irish culture.

--Pegeen Mike and the Widow Quin emerge as rivals and counterparts in their mutual interest in Christy and their differing roles and opportunities within the community. Notwithstanding the comic dimension to their competing interests, in what ways do these careful drawn portraits of two 'strong women' illuminate, by comparison or contrast, the condition of women in traditional Irish culture? In what ways do either or both of these characters present sympathetic or challenging portraits to the audience of the Abbey theatre?

--Why do the characters in Playboy welcome Christy as a hero and turn on him when they discover that, at least according to the logic driving this drama, is not? What does their embrace of Christy as an heroic figure say about their culture, values, experiences, and desires? What kinds of judgment or suspensions of judgment does Playboy demands from us as an audience?

--It has been suggested that Playboy is not only folk drama in subject matter, but in structure as well; that is, despite its satiric vision, through which both traditional and 'cosmopolitan' Ireland are objects of Synge's scornful eye, Playboy has the 'once upon a time' narrative arc of a folk tale, one with a hero in Christy, who must overcome various obstacles on the road to finding his true self. What elements of this play present themselves as either about the power of telling tales or assume the form of a 'unrealistic' folktale? Alternatively, what aspects of the real protrude through the fanciful setting of this tale?

--Elements of staging (scenery, costuming, props, movement, location of characters on stage, etc.) signify a great deal in Playboy, from the play's intentionally spare setting (an Abbey theatre aesthetic) to the symbolic resources of a mirror and the figurative functions of clothing. Working with some 'telling' aspect of staging, either something explicit within the text or, perhaps, something an actual performance might serve to bring out.

--Those 1907 riots, again. What particular perspective or insight do you have about the causes of the riots or their significance? Do you think that the later protests, in 1911, in North American cities owe their origins to the same cause or to some different reason?

--The five plays of the National Literary Theatre movement we have examined differ one from the other in their respective genre, e.g., allegory, farce, fable, folk tale, as well as in their mode, e.g., tragic or comic. Given their formal variety, in what ways do they variously envision the roles and objectives of a national theatre? Does Synge, for instance, understand the relationship between dramatic art and political issues in demonstratively different ways from his fellow dramatists Yeats and Gregory?

--Famously, in his Preface to Playboy, Synge observes that "[i]n Ireland, for a few years more, we have a popular imagination that is fiery and magnificent, and tender; so that those of us who wish to write start with a chance that is not given to writers in places where the springtime of the local life has been forgotten, and the harvest is a memory only, and the straw has been turned into bricks." Discuss this perspective of Synge on the powerful resources within a 'primitive' folk culture to invigorate a literate, more 'advanced' culture and consider either or both of his plays we have read as exemplars of this perspective.

--Considering only the first six stories of Joyce's Dubliners, what aspects of Joyce's narrative art, including his own declared use of epiphanies and a style of "scrupulous meanness", contribute toward a critical interpretation of the text? How do particular depictions of character and situation contribute to an overall meaning?

--Joyce wrote "The Sisters" for publication in 1904 and later revised the story for publication in Dubliners in 1914. What does a careful comparison of the two versions of the story reveal about Joyce's developing art? How do specific textual changes contribute to a more profound engagement for the reader with Joyce's vision of a city and citizenry paralyzed by fear and ignorance?


Advice and Resources
Consult the resources at the bottom of the course homepage for further guidance on craft of writing in the discipline of English. There you will find links to material on exploring a topic, on crafting and supporting a thesis, on handling and documenting source material, and on presenting your insights in a clear and engaging style. Please do have a look at them.