Instructor: Nancy Knowles, Loso Hall 146, 962-3795, nknowles@eou.edu
Office Hours: M 3-3:50 PM, TR 12:00 - 12:50 PM and by appointment
Course Home Page: http://www2.eou.edu/~nknowles/spring2004/engl205.html

Prerequisite: WR 121 or 131, and any 100-level English course.

Catalog Description: Study of selected writers of the British isles.

Focus of this particular version of ENGL 205: 20th-century Irish literature..

Required Texts available through the EOU Bookstore:

• William Butler Yeats. Selected Poems and Four Plays. Ed. M. L. Rosenthal. ISBN #0-584-82646-1.
• John P. Harrington. Modern Irish Drama. Norton Critical Edition. ISBN# 0393960633.
• James Joyce. The Dead. Ed. Daniel R. Schwarz. Bedford Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. ISBN #0-312-080073-5.
• Seamus Heaney. Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996. ISBN #0-374-52678-8.
• Roddy Doyle. The Commitments. ISBN #0-679-72174-6.
• Edna O'Brien. House of Splendid Isolation. ISBN #0452274524.

• ENGL 205: Writers of the British Isles meets the mission of General Education by challenging students to become critical, creative thinkers in reading, writing, and speaking.
• ENGL 205: Writers of the British Isles meets the GE Aesthetics and Humanities component. For outcomes and assessments, see below:

• Students will produce at least 3,000 words (including drafts, in-class writing, informal papers, and polished papers); 1,000 words of this total should be in polished papers which students have revised after receiving feedback and criticism.
• Students will be introduced to the discourse forms appropriate to the discipline the course represents.
• Students will write at least one paper integrating information from at least one source, employing the appropriate documentation style for the discipline represented by the course.
• Students will draft, revise, and edit their formal written work.

Students will seek assistance from a Writing Tutor in the Writing Lab when needed and when referred by the instructor.

1. Understand the methodology, practice, and controversies regarding the interpretation of Irish literature: identify the purposes and effects of poetic, dramatic, and prose genres, and situate Irish literature in its historical, cultural, and biographical context;
2. Read Irish literature critically in terms of genre and context; and
3. Write effectively about Irish literature as a means of discovery and of sharing critical responses.

• Participation in classroom discussion and activities, including group work (outcomes 1 & 2)--10%
• Generation of in-class writing as a means of exploring new ideas (outcomes 1, 2, & 3)--10%
• Critical papers analyzing the readings (outcomes 1, 2, & 3)--75%
• Final essay examination (outcomes 1, 2, & 3)--5%

• Read all assigned readings by the date they appear in the syllabus. Bring text to class.

• Successful learning depends on active participation in class discussion and activities. Absence, lack of preparation, and unwillingness to share ideas or to work during class time detract from participation credit. Help me help you to manage absences by contacting me in advance when absence is necessary.

• I expect each participant to conference with me at least once outside class.

• In-class writing will function as open-book, open-note quizzes graded on insight and depth of analysis not grammar.

• Deadlines for generative writing and rough drafts must be met. Late work will be penalized.

• Final drafts must be accompanied by earlier notes, outlines, and drafts demonstrating substantial revision, copies of all cited secondary materials, a works cited page, and a self-evaluation.

• I may require further revision or proofreading beyond the final draft, and I will accept any revisions you choose to make to the Short Paper until the last day of class. All revisions must be accompanied by the graded draft. Revision grades, if higher, will replace the initial grade, but revision does not guarantee a higher grade.

• The final examination is an institutional requirement. Rescheduling the final requires permission from the course instructor and the Dean of Arts & Sciences.

• Excellent participation
• Extra conferences with me
• Visits to the Writing Lab (submit blue form)

Schedule:
 

Week 1 Course introduction, Irish history, postcolonial theory, poetry terminology, William Butler Yeats
3/29M	3/30T Yeats "The Stolen Child," "To the Rose upon the Rood of Time," "The Rose of the World," "When You Are Old," "Who Goes with Fergus?" "The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland," "To Ireland in the Coming Times," "The Song of Wandering Aengus," "He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace"	4/1R Yeats "No Second Troy," "September 1913," "The Wild Swans at Coole," "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death," "Easter 1916," "The Second Coming," "A Prayer for My Daughter," "A Meditation in Time of War"	4/2F Yeats "Sailing to Byzantium," "The Tower," "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen," "Leda and the Swan," "Among School Children," "Byzantium," "Parnell's Funeral," "Lapis Lazuli," "Under Ben Bulben," "Long-Legged Fly," "The Circus Animals' Desertion," "The Death of Cuchulain"
Week 2 Drama terminology, Irish drama, Lady Gregory
4/5M	4/6T In Harrington Yeats's Cathleen Ni Houlihan, Watson's excerpt pages 414-20	4/8R In Harrington Gregory's The Rising of the Moon and comment pages 432-33, Coxhead's excerpt pages 441-46	4/9F In Harrington Synge's Riders to the Sea, Skelton excerpt pages 447-50
Week 3 J. M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, discussion of Short Paper
4/12M Harrington Irish Drama section pages 377-405	4/13T In Harrington Synge The Playboy of the Western World and Preface pages 451-52, Yeats article pages 460-62, Green excerpt pages 466-70	4/15R In Harrington O'Casey Juno and the Paycock, Fallon excerpt pages 499-503, Deane excerpt pages 509-12	4/16F
Week 4 James Joyce, literary theory
4/19M Generative writing for Short Paper due; Joyce The Dead pages 21-59	4/20T Selected theory section in Joyce text	4/22R Attend Future of EOU mini-conference during class	4/23F Three copies of complete Short Paper rough draft due
Week 5 Seamus Heaney
4/26M Heaney "Digging," "Death of a Naturalist," "Follower," "Mid-Term Break," "Outlaw," "The Forge," "The Wife's Tale," "A New Song," The Other Side," "Tinder," "The Tollund Man," "Serenades," "Limbo"	4/27T Final Draft of Short Paper with supporting materials due; Heaney "July," "England's Difficulty," "Funeral Rites," "North," "Bone Dreams," "Bog Queen," "The Grauballe Man," "Act of Union," "Hercules and Antaeus," "Whatever You Say Say Nothing," "Singing School"	4/29R NO CLASS	4/30F NO CLASS
Week 6 secondary research
5/3M Heaney "Oysters," "The Toome Road," "The Strand at Lough Beg," "Casualty," "The Skunk," "The Harvest Bow," "From the Frontier of Writing," "The Haw Lantern," "From the Republic of Conscience," "Clearances," "The Mud Vision"	5/4T Heaney "Seeing Things," "Wheels within Wheels," "Mint," "Weighing In," "The Nobel Lecture"	5/6R Secondary article and précis due	5/7F
Week 7 Fiction terminology, Roddy Doyle, film terminology
5/10M Doyle first half	5/11T Doyle second half	5/13R	5/14F First generative writing for Long Paper due
Week 8 Continue discussing Long Paper
5/17M	5/18T Attend Spring Symposium during class	5/20R	5/21F Second generative writing for Long Paper due; bring all Long Paper materials
Week 9 Edna O'Brien
5/24M O'Brien to page 129	5/25T Three copies of complete Short Paper rough draft due with one copy of secondary materials	5/27R Complete O'Brien	5/28F
Week 10
5/31M NO CLASS	6/1T Course Evaluation	6/3R NO CLASS	6/4F Long Paper due with supporting materials
Final: Tuesday, June 8, 8-10 AM