Courses

I have two courses which run all year long: Perspectives in Irish Writing and Sing Major Authors.  The remaining three are just for one term: Research Methods, The Poet and Poetry, and Ireland on Stage.  Next term I will have two new elective choices and be done with Research Methods.
On Tuesday morning at 10am I have Perspectives in Irish Writing.  Our professor rotates with the material.  For the first couple of weeks we have had Professor Ian Campbell Ross and have discussed the term "perspectives" and how it will fit into our course of study in this program.  We are all from diverse backgrounds and bring different perspectives to the table in the discussion of history and literature.  We started our study in the second week of class in 1695 with Vertue Rewarded or The Irish Princess and then in 1716 with Irish Tales by Sarah Butler.  The first is generally considered the first Irish novel and the second is the one of the first texts published with anything to do with Ireland in the title.  Both novels were written in a time that was still very much a manuscript culture - in which texts were not often published.  We continuously discuss the idea of national identity and how it is formed.  This class runs for 2 hours each Tuesday and over the course of the year will cover everything from poetry to political pamphlets.  We will look at what the term 'Irish writing' really means and how it is defined.
On Tuesday at 3pm, The Poet and Poetry course meets.  I am auditing this course which means I will not be graded.  But I want to attend the lectures because I find the subject matter interesting, and I am here so why not!  This class has focused thus far on W.B. Yeats - his essays and poems.  The first week, the professor treated us to a story-like narration of Yeats life.  In the second week we looked at a couple of his essays on magic and symbolism.  The professor is Terrence Brown, and he is a renowned Yeats scholar who wrote a biography of Yeats.  He has the most melodic voice and it often feels as though it is lulling me into relaxation.  We will also study the poets Louis MacNeice and Seamus Heaney in the course.
On Wednesday at 4pm for only 4 weeks we have Research Methods.  Each week we have an hour long lecture on a different topic.  Last week was the first class and we heard from Professor Nicky Grene (the head of my program) about academic writing.  This week we will hear from one of the many librarians about academic research.  It is very basic course which only has three assignments.
On Thursday at 10am I attend the Single Major Author course.  This first half of the term we are studying Johnathan Swift with Professor Ian Campbell Ross.  He is a Swift scholar as well as a scholar of early Irish writing.  We read Swift's first published work which is a very amateur poem dedicated to King William III in his victory in Ireland over James II.  The class agreed with Professor Ross in their condemnation of the poem's quality - some took it a bit far.  I did agree that it represented the work of an unpolished poet.  I just read the Drapier's Letters for this week's class - Swift's important political pamphlets on the subject of coinage and Irish self governance.  I am giving a short presentation on the fourth letter at the beginning of class on Thursday, and I am a bit nervous to impress this professor.  After Study Week in November, we will move on to study Yeats; and next term we will study James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.
Finally on Thursday afternoon at 3pm, Ireland on Stage is taught by Professor Grene.  He is a wonderful lecturer and quite fun in discussion.  So far we have read three of Yeats early plays:  The Countess Cathleen, Cathleen ni Houlihan, and On Baile's Strand.  I gave a short introductory presentation for Cathleen ni Houlihan and received praise from both professors and fellow students.  It is a play in which Ireland is personified in the old woman figure of Cathleen ni Houlihan who is regenerated to a young girl only after the young men of Ireland agree to sacrifice their lives to fight for her.  The play is only 9 pages long which was difficult for me to understand, but apparently plays were performed as starters before the main act or a couple of plays in one act were performed on a night of theatre at the time.
That is a list of the courses I am taking this term!