INSTRUCTOR: Fin Keegan hq@sixpens.com / 087 763-4339

TIME/PLACE: 7:30-9:30pm/Six Wednesdays in Westport (Sharkey Hill Community Centre: map below), from 5 October

DESCRIPTION: Ireland never had an Industrial Revolution and has always been seen, even to this day, as a wild place in which strange things can happen: fantasy, from our fairy tales to our best known literature, is a staple of Irish writing. But, in the work of writers from Jonathan Swift to Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, the whimsy has a deeper purpose and, although the rich imaginings of Oscar Wilde and Flann O’Brien have produced great comedy, they are notable too for the deeper currents set in motion.

Course Plan

1. Things Done Differently [5OCT]

Before class: Please begin reading the first part of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726)

In class:

• Excerpts from Homer; Ovid; Plato; Orwell; Stiff Little Fingers (Readings and discussion of handout: see here for PDF to print out)
• Jonathan Swift (1667-1741): Gulliver’s Travels (Part 1: Lilliput)

2. Mirror and Enchantment [12OCT]

Before class: Please continue reading the first part of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. If time allows, read Merriman’s Midnight Court.

In class:

• Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels (Part 1: Lilliput)
• Brian Merriman (c1749-1805): The Midnight Court (1780)

3.  Myth and Horror [19OCT]

Before class: please begin reading Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray.

In class:

• Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Bram Stoker: Dracula (not mandatory!)

4.  Romance and Fairytale [26OCT]

Before class: please finish reading Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray and read Joyce’s short story, “Clay”, in his collection Dubliners.

In class:

• Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
• James Joyce: “Clay”
• Poems by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill; WB Yeats (Handout)
• The Pogues: “Fairytale of New York”

5. Magic and Mess [2NOV16]

Before class, please read CS Lewis’s short novel for children, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

In class:

• Beckett: Imagination Dead Imagine [Handout]
• CS Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• JRR Tolkien on fairy tales
• Bram Stoker: Dracula
• Poems by Paul Durcan

6. Darkness and Laughter [9NOV16]

Before class, please read (as much as possible of!) O’Brien’s The Third Policeman

In class:

• Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman
• Martin McDonagh: The Beauty Queen of Leenane (not mandatory)

Texts

Click on the links for digital versions, available for free online.

• Handout I: Homer; Ovid; Plato; Orwell:  PDF print-out
• Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels bit.ly/SIXPENS2
• Brian Merriman: The Midnight Court  [Optional] bit.ly/SIXPENS7
• Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray bit.ly/SIXPENS3
• Bram Stoker: Dracula [Optional] bit.ly/SIXPENS4
• James Joyce: “Clay” bit.ly/SIXPENS8
• Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman
• CS Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Martin McDonagh: The Beauty Queen of Leenane  [Optional]

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