Voices of the Celtic World

Session A (May 21-June 29, 2018)
Instructor: Thomas R. Walsh
TuWTh 1-3:30
Dwinelle 235
4 units

This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement for the Bachelor’s Degree.

With a firm focus on developing your writing skills in college, the 2018 summer Celtic Studies R1B will Irish and Greek drama. We will begin by reading a canonical drama, The Antigone, in order to show how to write about a drama. From there we will go to Irish drama, The Playboy of the Western World. Our thematics turn at that point to ecstatic madness in Euripides’ Bacchae, about cosmic issues surrounding the Greek god of excess, Dionysus, and what happens to those who deny life its due. We will finish by looking truth and lies, through Friel’s Translations, and Sophocles’ Philoctetes. A short research project rounds out this exciting course.

Books:

Diane Hacker and Nancy Sommers. A Pocket Style Manual. 7^th ed. Bedford/St. Martins. ISBN-10: 0-312-542542. 8^th edition is ok.

John P. Harrington, ed. Modern Irish Drama (Norton Critical Editions). 2nd ed. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008. ISBN-978-0-393-93243-0. Only the 2^nd edition please.

Reader, available at “Replica Copy” on the first day of class.

Course purpose:
The primary focus of this course is the improvement of your writing. Since R1B is an intensive college writing course, issues of development and style are presented at an advanced level. Further, students are to receive attention to their writing through detailed comments on their essays and through discussion in class and during office hours.

All Reading and Composition courses must be taken for a letter grade in order to fulfill this requirement for the Bachelor’s Degree.

Prerequisites:  Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent.  Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.

Instructor pending appointment.