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  6. EL5597: Traditions: Irish and Scottish Poetry from 600 to 2010

EL5597: TRADITIONS: IRISH AND SCOTTISH POETRY FROM 600 TO 2010 (2017-2018)

Last modified: 27 Feb 2018 17:16


Course Overview

​The course examines the rich poetic literatures of Ireland and Scotland from earliest times to the present. It includes works from the medieval Gaelic culture shared by both countries and from their very different literatures in modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic and in Teutonic languages (English and Scots in Scotland, English and Ulster Scots in Ireland). The course reveals the fascinating back story to the achievement of world famous writers such as Robert Burns and W. B. Yeats and explores how two small neighbouring countries sustained diverse, inter-involved and still evolving poetic traditions over a period of fifteen hundred years.

Course Details

Study Type Postgraduate Level 5
Session Second Sub Session Credit Points 30 credits (15 ECTS credits)
Campus Old Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Professor Patrick Crotty

Qualification Prerequisites

None.

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Any Postgraduate Programme (Studied)
  • One of Master of Letters in English Literary Studies or Master of Letters in Irish and Scottish Literature or M Litt in Creative Writing

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

  • EL5097 Traditions: Irish and Scottish Poetry from 600 to 2010 (Studied)

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

This comparative course will consider the development of poetry in Ireland and Scotland from earliest times to the present. It will include medieval, early modern, eighteenth-century, twentieth-century and contemporary elements, paying equal attention to the literary cultures of both countries. Key differences between the linguistic, religious and political situations in Ireland and Scotland will be explored alongside parallels and interactions. Verse in Irish and Scottish Gaelic (presented in English translation) will be examined, both from the shared period of Classical Gaelic (1200-1600) and other times. Work in Middle, Modern and Ulster Scots will be studied in the original languages. Possible topics include Makars and Bards; Macpherson and Gaelic authenticity; Merriman and Burns; the eighteenth-century divergence of the Irish and Scottish traditions of Gaelic poetry; Paddy Burns and the Rhyming Weavers; romanticism in Ireland and Scotland; the Irish Literary Revival and the Scottish Literary Renaissance; Yeats and MacDiarmid; Irish and Scottish poetic modernism; poetry by Irish and Scottish women.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 31 August 2023 for 1st half-session courses and 22 December 2023 for 2nd half-session courses.

Summative Assessments

1 essay of 2,500 words (40%); 1 essay of 3,500 words (50%); 1 presentation (10%).

Resit: ​1 essay of 5,000 words.

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Feedback

Detailed feedback on student essays will be provided by tutor at agreed times and within the normal turn-around sc​hedule; feedback on presentations will be given within two days of the event.

Course Learning Outcomes

None.
 

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