This course presents key authors, texts, and concepts in postcolonial studies as it pertains to Ireland and Irish literature. The course begins with an introduction to the term postcolonialism, traces its development as a methodological approach to literature, and then explores the contested application of the term to Ireland. The course then explores relevant concepts such as anticolonialism, nationalism, binaries, stereotypes, and hybridity in literary texts. In parallel with the literary texts, students will read from scholarly work and interventions in the field. By the end of the course, students will be comfortable analyzing, interrogating, and critiquing narratives of Irishness, and will be equipped to engage in a postcolonial analysis of literary texts, national narratives, and historiographies.
Semester Offered