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Published on Ireland Program, 2006-2007 (http://www2.evergreen.edu/ireland)

Winter Quarter Syllabus

Assignment for week one of winter quarter: Read Angela’s Ashes and chapter 6 of The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland over winter break. Your response paper is due in seminar; come prepared to discuss what you have read and written.

Week One: The Devil’s Era
1/9 9 – 11 The Devil’s Era, the Dance Hall Act, and the Gaelic League (Sean)
1:30 – 4:00 Contours of Irish History in the 20th Century (Tom and Dunstan)
1/10 10 – 1 Film: The Field; Irish children's songs
1/11 10 – 12 Seminars
1:30 – 4:00 Film: Dancing at Lúghnasa/Review of the language
Assignment for week two: Read The Scotch-Irish, ch.12-17. Your response paper is due in seminar in week two; come prepared to discuss your work.

Week Two: Irish America: Leaving Home
1/16 9 – 11 Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Brian Friel); Departure (Sean)
1:30 – 4:00 The Great Migration of the Scotch-Irish (Tom)
1/17 10 – 1 Film: The Irish in America; Writing Poetry (Dunstan)
1/18 10 – 12 Seminars
1:30 – 4:00 The "Real Irish" and the Scotch-Irish (Sean)
Assignment for week three: Read Cracker Culture and the Albion’s Seed reading, “Borderlands to the Backcountry,” pp.605-782 (on closed reserve in the library). Your response paper is due in seminar in week three; come prepared to discuss what you have read and written.

Week Three: Irish America Before the Civil War

1/23 9 – 11 The Making of a Cracker: The Persistence of Celtic Folkways (Tom)
1:30 – 4:00 The Musical Heritage of Ireland and Scotland (Sean)
1/24 10 – 1 Film: Songcatcher
1/25 10 – 12 Seminars
1:30 – 4:00 Heritage and Family Histories (Tom)
Assignment for week four: Read second Albion’s Seed reading, “Conclusion,” pp. 783-898 (on closed reserve in the library) and Banished Children of Eve (pp.1-228). Your response paper is due in seminar in week four; come prepared to discuss what you have read and written. Note: $1000 tuition payment for Ireland trip is due on January 31.

Week Four: Irish America and the Civil War
1/30 9 – 11 American Minstrelsy and the Civil War (Sean)
1:30 – 4:00 The Irish in America: Confederate and Union (Tom)
1/31 10 – 1 Film: Gettysburg, pt. I
2/1 10 – 12 Seminars
1:30 – 4:00 Film: Matewan [0]; Irish travel meeting
Assignment for week five: Read the remainder of Banished Children of Eve (pp.229-589). Your response paper is due in seminar in week five; come prepared to discuss what you have read and written. Send a “how’s it going” e-mail to your seminar leader by 2/9.

Week Five: Irish America, the Labor Movement, and the Democratic Party

2/6 9 – 11 No Irish Need Apply: the Search for an American Identity (Sean)
1:30 – 4:00 Labor, Unions, and the Irish in Politics (Tom)
2/7 10 – 1 Film: The Molly Maguires; Eugene O’Neill (Sean)
2/8 10 – 12 Seminars
1:30 – 4:00 Performance group meetings; Joe McHugh, storyteller
Assignment for week six: Read Irish America: Coming Into Clover. Bring your family history to seminar; come prepared to discuss what you have discovered.

Week Six: Irish America and Back Again
2/13 9 – 11 Making the Irish “Safe” for America: Stars and Politicians (Sean)
1:30 – 4:00 The Popularity of All Things Irish (Sean)
2/14 10-1 Film: The Last Hurrah
2/15 10 – 12 Seminars
1:30 – 4:00 The Legacy of Conquest: Scotland and Northern Ireland in Our Times (Tom); performance group meetings
Assignment for week seven: Read Making Sense of the Troubles: the Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland (David McKittrick). Your visual response is due in seminar; come prepared to discuss what you have created.

Week Seven: The North
2/20 9 – 11 The Troubles: Songs and Poems of the North (Sean)
1:30 – 4:00 Film: Some Mother’s Son; start work on peace project [0]
2/21 10 – 1 Guest Lecturer: Peter Robinson
2/22 10 – 12 Seminars
1:30 – 4:00 Guest Lecturer: Peter Robinson
Assignment for week eight: Read Postnationalist Ireland (pp.1-12, 99-142, and 178-188), on closed reserve in the library. Your peace and reconciliation project
[0] is due in seminar in week eight; come prepared to present your brochure and activity. In addition, your final integrative essay (on Irish-America, eight pages long) is due on Tuesday morning in class. Meet with your collaborative group to plan your final production.

Week Eight: Ireland and Europe

2/27 9 – 11 Samuel Beckett and Brendan Behan (Dunstan)
1:30 – 4:00 The European Union and Irish Identities (Sean)
2/28 10 – 1 Film: Riverdance
3/1 10 – 12 Seminars
1:30 – 4:00 Irish Popular Music (Sean); performance group rehearsals
Assignment for week nine: Read Heaney and Boland. Bring five of the most meaningful poems with you to seminar, and be prepared to read and discuss these poems with the members of your small group (no response paper necessary). Do your rehearsals and “clean-up” of your presentations.

Week Nine: The Contemporary Irish Cultural Explosion
3/6 9 – 11 New Poets in Irish and English (Dunstan)
1:30– 4:00 A Skull in Connemara (Martin McDonagh) and The Mai (Marina Carr)
3/7 10 – 1 Film: The Departed
3/8 10 – 12 Seminars; working on the self-evaluation
1:30 – 4:00 Project Development and Rehearsals
Assignment for week ten: Prepare your final collaborative presentations (1/2 hour per group) and poem and Irish-language proverb [0] that you expect to recite by heart for your evaluation.

Week Ten: Collaborative Presentations
3/12 all day: Dress Rehearsals for your Collaborative Presentations
3/13 10 – 1 Collaborative Presentations, groups 1-5
3/14 10 – 12 Collaborative Presentations, groups 6-8
1:30 – 4:00 Collaborative Presentations, groups 9-12


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http://www2.evergreen.edu/ireland/ireland/winter-quarter-syllabus