EN 518 Reading Irish Childhood (Spring: 3)

Why study Irish childhood now? Representations of the child dominate recent Irish culture, from Oscar winning movies to Pulitzer winning memoirs and Booker-winning novels. This course evaluates this cultural turn. It examines how understandings of the Irish child change over time. It investigates the relationship between children and nation. It asks how nostalgia and memory frame childhood. It considers education, play, adoption, child abuse, and institutionalization. Texts include Yeats' "Prayer for my Daughter," Joyce's Dubliners, novels by Kate O'Brien, Roddy Doyle, and Anne Enright, memoirs by Frank McCourt and Julia O'Faolain, films including The Butcher Boy and In America.
James Smith

Last Updated: 24-JAN-13