Module Code - Title:
EH6021
-
GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN IRISH WRITING
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
Taking Irish literature over the past century as its main focus of enquiry, this course aims to:
Interrogate the ways in which gender and sexuality have been produced or constructed within the Irish literary tradition;
Explore the engagement of these texts with contemporary historical, social and political contexts;
Consider changing definitions of gender and sexuality in Irish culture over the past thirty years in particular;
Evaluate connections and divergences between the writing of sexuality and gender North and South during the period;
Evaluate a range of theoretical approaches which have been, or might be, applied to this literature.
Syllabus:
Questions of gender and sexuality have been at the centre of many controversial ideological debates in Irish society, particularly over the past thirty years. Providing an arena for symbolic meanings, as well as conflicting forces between the self and others, questions of gender and sexuality have been central to the work of many well-known Irish literary writers. This course will introduce students to some of this work, predominantly in the realm of literary and autobiographical writing, and consider the power of representation to address established hierarchies of power in Ireland through the dynamics of gender and sexuality. Key areas of study will include: histories of gender and sexuality; gender, sexuality and nation; writing and the body; Irish masculinities; performativity in Irish literature.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
Analyse the texts under discussion in relation to the cultural, political and social contexts in which they were produced and appraise the diverse reactions of literary and other writers to key ideological questions of the period, specifically in relation to gender and sexuality.
Synthesis and critique different theoretical approaches to the study of gender and sexuality in Irish literature.
Select relevant primary and secondary readings to produce well-written and well-documented research papers and essays, appropriate to postgraduate level.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
Assess ways in which these texts have contributed to, and disrupted, constructions of gender and sexuality in Ireland in the contemporary period.
Demonstrate an ability to analyse the formal qualities of individual texts, their linguistic diversity and range of meanings.
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:
McGahern, J. (1991)
Amongst Women
, London: Penguin
Boland, E. (2005)
New Collected Poems
, Manchester: Carcanet.
Toibin, C (2001)
The Blackwater Lightship
, New York: Scriber
Enright, E. (2007)
The Gathering
, London: Grove
Trevor, W. (2002)
The Story of Lucy Gault
, London: Viking
Other Relevant Texts:
Kiberd, D (1996)
Inventing Ireland
, London: Vintage
Connolly, C. (2002)
Theorising Ireland
, London: Palgrave
Connolly, L. and O Toole, T. (2005)
Documenting Irish Feminisms
, Dublin: Woodfield P
Coughlan, P. and O Toole, T. (2008)
Irish Literature: Feminist Perspectives
, Dublin: Carysfort
Cairns, D. and Richards, S. (1988)
Writing Ireland: Colonialism, Nationalism and Culture
, Manchester: Manchester UP
St. Peter, Christine (2000)
Changing Ireland: Strategies in Contemporary Womens Fiction
, London: Macmillan
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Autumn
Module Leader:
tina.otoole@ul.ie