Celtic 192: Modern Irish Poetry and Drama

Barbara Hillers
Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures
Harvard University

Course Description

A survey of twentieth-century poetry and drama in Irish, from its beginnings to the present day. There is an emphasis on class participation, and the course aims to expand students' command of the language. Conducted in Irish.

Topics

• Poets and dreamers: the poetry of the Easter Rising
• The `New Poetry' of the mid-century (Máirtín Ó Direáin, Seán Ó Ríordáin, Máire Mhac an tSaoi)
• The Innti poets of the late 'seventies (Michael Davitt, Michael Hartnett; Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Caitlín Maude; Gabriel Rosenstock)
• The politics of translation Feminist voices (Caitlín Maude; Áine Ní Ghlinn, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill et al.)
• Beyond modernism: tradition and subversion in the poetry of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and others.
• The Irish National Theatre and the invention of the Irish drama in Gaelic and English
• Gaeltacht drama beyond the Gaelic kitchen sink (Joe Steve Ó Neachtain, Antoine Ó Flatharta)
• A Gaelic Theatre of the Absurd and Fantastic? (Alan Titley, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Antoine Ó Flatharta)

Assessment