Taking the literature of Ireland and the Americas as its main focus of enquiry, this course aims to: • interrogate the production and re-production of Ireland in American cultures over the past two centuries; • evaluate connections and divergences between a range of writing (literary, autobiographical, screen, and music) of different generations of Irish migrants to the Americas; • consider issues of ethnicity, hybridity, and exchange in Irish-American cultures; • explore the ways in which American cultures have been created and produced in Irish literature, film, and music; • evaluate a range of theoretical approaches which have been, or might be, applied to this literature and culture.

The interaction of Irish and American culture has been central to the work of many well-known Irish and Irish-American literary writers; cultural cross-fertilisation between Ireland and the Americas also finds expression in shared customs, festivals, and in political allegiances. This module will introduce students to the patterns of reciprocal exchange and influence between Ireland and the Americas, predominantly in the realm of literary and cultural studies. Nineteenth-century Irish America, in particular, provides a textual model for later ethnic immigrant writing, and raises questions of representation, hybridity, belonging, and exclusion. The cultural production of Irish emigrants to other parts of the Americas is sometimes overlooked in scholarship on Irish-America; relatedly, there has been a tendency to see Irish-American heritage as a white, Anglophone culture, when in fact the picture is culturally and socially hybrid. Taking the "Greening of the Atlantic" as a central topic of study, this module will address multi-ethnic cultural exchanges resulting from Irish migrant communities in the Americas. These questions and more will be addressed through the study of relevant texts, including literary works, cultural events, film, music, and political actions.

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: • Demonstrate an ability to analyse the formal qualities of individual texts, their linguistic diversity and range of meanings; • 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 questions of national and transnational identities; • Assess ways in which these texts have contributed to and/or disrupted, constructions of national identity in Ireland and the Americas in the contemporary period; • Synthesise and critique different theoretical approaches to the study of these writings; • Select relevant primary and secondary readings to produce well-written and well-documented research papers and essays, appropriate to postgraduate level.

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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). Together, these lectures and tutorials will equip students with a deeper knowledge of Ireland's creative and artistic heritage. As this is postgraduate module, a significant proportion of the workload involves self-directed research. The module will be examined by essay and presentation work which will enhance students' literary, critical, and historical vocabulary.