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Lecturer(s)
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Marková Michaela, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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This course introduces the island of Ireland through an interdisciplinary lens, combining historical, political, cultural, linguistic, literary, and ethnographic perspectives. Across the semester, students study how Irish and Northern Irish identities have been formed, contested, and represented, and how Ireland's experience is shaped both by its emergence as an independent nation and by its position within British and global history. Key themes and topics include: Ireland(s) and identity: competing definitions of Irishness and Northern Irishness; nation vs island vs diaspora; belonging, exclusion, and plural identities. Language and power: the relationship between Gaeilge and English (and Ulster Scots where relevant); language shift and revival; translation; place-names and linguistic landscapes as political and cultural markers. Colonial legacies and social structures: Plantation and Ascendancy histories; land, religion, class, and institutional power; how these legacies shape modern political and cultural life. Catastrophe, migration, and memory: the Famine and its representations; emigration and diaspora; commemoration and contested historical narratives. Cultural nationalism and the Revival: myth, folklore, theatre, and print culture as tools of nation-making; debates about authenticity and cultural authority. Modernity and the literary city: Irish modernism and the everyday as social history, especially through Joyce's Dublin; the relationship between realism, modernist experiment, and social critique. The independent state and cultural regulation: moral authority, respectability, censorship, and the role of Church and state; gender and sexuality as fault-lines in national life (with attention to Edna O'Brien and other counter-narratives). Class, land, and minority positions: Anglo-Irish identities and "Big House" culture; decline, ambiguity, and historical haunting (e.g., Bowen). Northern Ireland and divided society: partition and its social geography; everyday division; civil rights and the Troubles; the ethics of representation in conflict writing (notably Heaney and other Northern poets). Peace process and post-conflict culture: reconciliation, victims and memory, institutional arrangements, and the cultural work of peace; applying concepts from Northern Ireland to comparative discussions of other divided societies. Contemporary and global Ireland: globalization, migration, inequality, shifting social norms, and the remaking of Irish identity in late 20th- and 21st-century contexts (including McGahern and later writing).
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Lecture, Seminár
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Learning outcomes
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The course aims to provide students with an overview and insights of the history, politics, culture, literature and language of the island of Ireland. Students will examine Irish and Northern Irish identity and society from a range of perspectives, including historical, linguistic, political, literary and ethnographic. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding Ireland?s role as an emerging independent nation, as well as part of the wider matrix of British and global history. Attention is further given to the extraordinary contribution to English-language literature by writers such as Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, Bowen, McGahern, Heaney and Edna O?Brien. Students also have the opportunity to study in depth the ?problems? of Northern Ireland, gaining insights that can be applied to divided societies around the world from the peace process in the region.
Students completing this course should be able to: Identify and explain key developments in the history, politics, culture, and language of the island of Ireland, including the emergence of the Irish state and the impact of partition. Analyse Irish and Northern Irish identities and social realities using multiple approaches (historical, linguistic, political, literary, and ethnographic). Perform close readings of major Irish writing in English and relate textual form, voice, and genre to cultural and political contexts. Recognise and evaluate the significance of major writers such as Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, Bowen, McGahern, Heaney, and Edna O'Brien within Irish, British, and global literary histories. Assess representations of conflict and reconciliation in Northern Irish culture and apply key concepts from the peace process to comparative discussions of divided societies. Communicate clearly in discussion and writing, developing evidence-based interpretations that integrate primary texts with contextual sources.
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Prerequisites
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unspecified
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Essay
Lectures: Study the provided materials (lecture outline + assigned text) Seminars: Preparation and participation: Attend seminars regularly and come prepared, having completed the required reading. Contribute to seminar discussion and complete in-class activities (close-reading tasks, group work, short presentations). Weekly/biweekly reading responses as set by the teacher: Short written responses to the primary texts (typically 8-10 submissions over the semester; approx. 300 words each or structured close-reading notes). Seminar discussion facilitation (once): Co-lead one seminar discussion with a short handout and a set of discussion questions. Close-reading assignment (in preparation for the final assessment essay): A short analytical paper focused on a single poem/scene/passage (approx. 3 pages), emphasizing textual analysis and argument. Final essay: A final paper (approx. 4-6 pages) integrating primary texts with scholarly sources. Includes a proposal and annotated bibliography submitted earlier in the semester. Academic integrity and referencing: All work submitted for assessment must be your own and must comply with university rules on academic integrity. You are expected to demonstrate independent reading, thinking, and writing, and to acknowledge all sources used. AI tools (including ChatGPT and similar systems) may be used only for early-stage support, such as: brainstorming possible essay questions or angles, generating discussion questions, outlining your own argument plan, identifying key themes to look for while reading, suggesting search terms for finding scholarly sources. AI tools may not be used to produce any part of assessed written work. This means you may not use AI to: write or rewrite paragraphs, sentences, introductions, conclusions, or transitions, paraphrase, "polish," or copy-edit your prose, generate thesis statements that you adopt verbatim, produce close readings, interpretations, or comparative analyses that you submit as your own, create summaries of assigned readings that you submit for credit, generate citations, bibliographies, or references in place of your own checking of sources. Transparency and accountability You may be asked to discuss your argument, drafting process, and textual evidence in class or in a short follow-up conversation. If you use AI for brainstorming, you should keep a brief record of how you used it (e.g., prompts, notes, outlines) in case questions arise about authorship. Consequences Breaches of academic integrity (including unauthorised AI use, plagiarism, or submitting non-original work) will be handled under university procedures and may result in penalties up to and including a failing grade for the assignment or the course.
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Recommended literature
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Falci, Eric; Reynolds, Paige. Irish literature in transition: 1980-2020. 2020.
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Fox, Renée Allyson; Ó Conchubhair, Brian; Cronin, Mike. Routledge international handbook of Irish studies. 2021. ISBN 978-0-367-25913-6.
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Maher, Eamon; O'Brien, Eugene. Reimagining Irish studies for the twenty-first century. 2021. ISBN 9781800791916.
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