Module Code - Title:
CU6041
-
LITERATURE OF MIGRATION
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
To explore the inter-relationship between migration and its literary representations.
To analyse a variety of literary texts and film from different cultural backgrounds which rework, redefine and deconstruct migration experiences.
To study themes and concepts that occur in the context of migration, diaspora and exile, i.e. identity, ethnicity, history, memory, language and home
Syllabus:
This module explores literary representations of migration, diaspora and exile with emphasis on the Irish experience of emigration as well as immigration in the context of other experiences of migrancy and dislocation in Europe and around the world. Issues and topics that occur in the context of forced and voluntary migrations have resulted in a range of creative expressions in literature and other artistic forms. The reassessment, reworking and reimagining of the past and present forms of migration, diaspora and exile is an essential part of contemporary cultural production as it is closely related to questions of identity, ethnicity, history, memory, language and home. All of these themes which have developed a strong resonance in life and literature in the 20th and 21st century will form the background of analysis of the chosen texts.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Analyse texts through close reading, locate them in their literary, historical, social and political contexts and place them within relevant theoretical debates.
Explore literary representations of themes such as migration, diaspora and exile as well as literary treatments of themes such as identity, displacement, loss of language.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Identify and evaluate strategies used to express these themes within autobiographical, fictional and non-fictional writing and other media such as film, art and music.
Present an informed analysis of the discussed themes and texts in both essay and presentation format following appropriate academic standards.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
The module will be taught by lecture, seminar discussion and by research-based critical material. Students will learn by listening to and engaging with lectures, reading primary and secondary sources (both assigned and recommended). As this is postgraduate module, a significant proportion of the workload involves self-directed research, which will be graded by continuous assessment.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Allende, Isabel (1994)
Eva Luna
, London: Penguin
Canetti, Elias (1999)
Tongue Set free
, London: Granta Books
Cardinal, Marie (2000)
The Words To Say It
, London: Women¿s Press
Holfter, Gisela and Rasche, Hermann, eds (2004)
John Hennig¿s Exile in Ireland
, Galway: Arlen Press
Levy, Andrea (2004)
Small Island
, London: Review
Moore, Brian (1992)
Fergus
, London: Vintage
Sebald, W.G. (2002)
The Emigrants
, London: Vintage
Seth, Vikram (2006)
Two Lives
, London: Abacus
De Burca, Damien (2007)
Blind eye
, Film
Bhabha, Homi, ed. (1990)
Nation and Narration
, London: Routledge
Bhabha, Homi (1994)
The Location of Culture
, London: Routledge
Said, Edward (1993)
Culture and Imperialism
, London: Chatto and Windus
O Donnell, Damien (1999)
East is East
, Film
O Connor, Joseph (2003)
Star of the Sea
, London: Vintage
Other Relevant Texts:
Anderson, Benedict (1991)
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
, London: Verso
Bromley, Roger (2000)
Narratives for a New Belonging ¿ Diasporic Cultural Fictions
, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Burgin, V. (1996)
In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture
, Berkeley: University of California Press
Holfter, Gisela (2006)
German-speaking Exiles in Ireland 1933-1945
, Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi
Leerssen, Joep (1996)
Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century
, Cork: C U P
Pooley, Colin G. and Whyte, Ian D, eds (1991)
Migrants, Emigrants and Immigrants: A Social History of Migration
, London: Routledge
Thacker, Andrew (2003)
Moving Through Modernity: Space and Geography in Modernity
, Manchester University Press
O Neill, P. and Lloyd D. (eds) (2009)
The Black and Green Atlantic: Cross-Currents of the African and Irish Diasporas
, Palgrave
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Autumn
Module Leader:
anita.barmettler@ul.ie