Celtic R1B, Section 1: Irish Drama and Greek Drama: Tragedy, Comedy, Education, Language: Is Language Ever Free?
4 units
2030 VLSB
MWF 1-2
Thomas Walsh
The primary focus of this course is on the development of your writing. Since R1B is an intensive college writing course, issues of 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. Our style sheet is the book by Diane Hacker, where the MLA style format is explained in detail.
Your writing for this course will analyze and interpret significant dramatic texts. These texts are listed under “Required Reading and Style Sheet.” It is important that you use the editions ordered for the course or handed out in class. Other editions (whether electronic or in print) should not be used. Please note that this is the case.
These texts work together in the following ways: a.) The development of Irish and Greek drama (each within a single century) presents parallel literary features that attract intellectually engaged minds. Some subjects include defiance of authoritarian order (Sophocles, Heaney); language and culture (Friel, Sophocles); gender (Sophocles, Synge); social upheaval (Friel, Sophocles). b.) Issues of language, speech, freedom, lying, etc. are front and center in both Greek and Irish traditions. Drama is an inherently political genre, one which we will explore from the perspective of comparative literature
There will be 4-5 short papers, with drafts, and a final research project to introduce you to the UCB library resources.
Required Reading and Style Sheet:
[It is important that you use the editions ordered for the course or handed out in class. Other editions (whether electronic or in print) should not be used. Please note that this is the case.]
Diane Hacker and Nancy Sommers. A Pocket Style Manual. 7th ed. Bedford/St. Martins. ISBN-10: 0-312-542542. (Either the 6th or 8th edition is acceptable.)
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.
Seamus Heaney. The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles’ Antigone. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2004. ISBN-10: 0-374-11721-7.
—–. The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1991. ISBN 0-374-52289-8.
Aristophanes, 3. Slavitt, David, and Palmer Bovie (eds). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ISBN-10: 0812235010; ISBN-13: 978-0812235012
Sophocles: Electra, Antigone, Philoctetes. Trans. Kenneth McLeish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Euthydemus. Plato. Trans. G. A. McBrayer, Nichols, M. P. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing (R. Pollins Company)
Prerequisite: 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.
Celtic R1B, Section 2: Celtic Literature and Psychoanalysis
4 units
235 Dwinelle
MWF 3-4
Zachary Johnson
This course will introduce you to some of the most exciting and enduring concepts of psychoanalysis—dreams, transference, psychic structure, desire, sexuality—through classic and contemporary psychoanalytic readings. Since this is a Celtic studies course, we will also be reading, discussing, and writing about artistic works drawn from that tradition, including but not limited to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Seamus Heaney’s The Burial at Thebes, and selected short stories by James Joyce and Anne Enright. We will also watch at least one film. These Celtic works have been selected, in part, for their thematic affinities with the psychoanalytic readings. The wager of this course, however, is that apart from any overt connections between psychoanalytic theory and Celtic literature, a curious, playful and imaginative psychoanalytic mode of thinking will not only be unpredictably useful for our thinking about these texts, but for our development as readers and writers.
Writing in this course will assume several forms: textual glosses, argumentative summaries, stylistic explorations, a close-reading analysis paper, and a final research paper. The reading load for this course will average between 40-70 pages per week.
Texts:
Course Reader (available at Metro Publishing): All readings will be contained in the course reader.
Prerequisite: 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.
Celtic R1B, Section 3: Celtic Literature and Psychoanalysis
4 units
41 Evans
MWF 4-5
Zachary Johnson
This course will introduce you to some of the most exciting and enduring concepts of psychoanalysis—dreams, transference, psychic structure, desire, sexuality—through classic and contemporary psychoanalytic readings. Since this is a Celtic studies course, we will also be reading, discussing, and writing about artistic works drawn from that tradition, including but not limited to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Seamus Heaney’s The Burial at Thebes, and selected short stories by James Joyce and Anne Enright. We will also watch at least one film. These Celtic works have been selected, in part, for their thematic affinities with the psychoanalytic readings. The wager of this course, however, is that apart from any overt connections between psychoanalytic theory and Celtic literature, a curious, playful and imaginative psychoanalytic mode of thinking will not only be unpredictably useful for our thinking about these texts, but for our development as readers and writers.
Writing in this course will assume several forms: textual glosses, argumentative summaries, stylistic explorations, a close-reading analysis paper, and a final research paper. The reading load for this course will average between 40-70 pages per week.
Texts:
Course Reader (available at Metro Publishing): All readings will be contained in the course reader.
Prerequisite: 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.
Celtic 85: Intermediate Modern Irish
4 units
6307 Dwinelle
TuTh 3:30-5
Thomas Walsh
A Continuation of Celtic Studies 15
This course continues from where we left off in Beginning Irish (Celtic Studies 15). Absolute beginners will be accommodated on an ad hoc basis. Our goals are to develop the ability to understand, speak, read and write Irish. In class, the course will emphasize Irish language conversation through everyday idioms and phrases as well in the context of films and stories. Students will also read simple poetry and prose. Music, song and video will be used to facilitate the learning process and set the language in a cultural context for students. After this course students, should they so wish, will be ready to participate in the summer courses available in the Irish speaking areas (the Gaeltachtaí) in Ireland.
Texts:
Gaeilge gan Stró! Lower Intermediate Level: A Multimedia Irish Language Course for Adults (English and Irish Edition) by Éamonn Ó Dónaill. ISBN: 978-0-9563614-1-7.
Progress in Irish: A Graded Course for Beginners and Revision. Máiréad Ní Ghráda. The Educational Company. ISBN 978-0-86167-159-5
Pocket Oxford Irish Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-860254-5
Prerequisites: Completion of Celtic Studies 15; consent of instructor.
Celtic 129: Aspects of Modern Celtic Cultures and Folklore
4 units
223 Dwinelle
MWF 10-11
Thomas Walsh
Shadowy elfin populated isles; forty-shades of green; shamrocks and kilts; rebels and religions; poets and druids; goddesses and witches; hobbits and orcs.
Is there more to what we mean by “Celtic Culture” than these charming allures?
This course provides, through lecture, discussion, and multimedia presentation, some tentative and some secure answers to basic questions about Celtic Culture in modernity. The course will cover the major Celtic Cultures, including, the Celts of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Brittany, and Cornwall. The course’s main concern will be with the cultural capital that modern Celtic peoples bring to the modern context. Specifically, our lectures and readings focus on having us understand comparatively the literary and artistic contributions from these varied cultures. Historical context will be provided as we move from one culture to another, from one period to another.
Among the concerns of the course will be: the ideology of Celticism; the folklore of these cultures; the reception of Celtic material by modern mainstream culture in film and the other arts; the development of literary and other aesthetic forms in Celtic cultures, including fiction, drama, lyric, and other genres. Some working questions for us will be: “How are certain cultural forms and practices specific to modern Celtic cultures?” “How do those forms affect the non-Celtic mainstream in Europe and beyond Europe?” “In what ways do Celtic cultures emerge as oppressed, under-represented, and exploited within the recent centuries of revolution and de-colonization?”
Partial list of books:
The Celts: A Very Short Introduction. Barry Cunliffe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Writing the Wind: Celtic Resurgence: The New Celtic Poetry. Ed. T. R. Crowe. Cullowhee North Carolina: New Native Press, 1997
Course Reader available on first day of class.
Student Requirements:
A midterm and a final; a short essay which may be used as a basis for a term paper; a short research project; and a final.
Projects can be developed according to student interest. Possible projects include film, music, art, folklore, and other cultural forms.
Grades will be based on an amalgam of assessments assigned to the above assignments.
Attendance and participation will help improve the average of the grades.
Celtic 173: Celtic Christianity
4 units
209 Dwinelle
TuTh 11-12:30
Annalee Rejhon
L&S Breadth: Historical Studies
The course (CS173) will examine the early reception and development of Christianity in Ireland and Britain. Particular attention will be paid to the role that insular pre-Christian Celtic religious systems played in this reception and the conversion to Christian belief. Lectures and primary works that will be read (complete or in extract) to elucidate this issue will be drawn from wisdom texts, secular and canon law texts, ecclesiastical legislation, penitentials and monastic rules, apocrypha, and lyric poetry. A selection of saints’ lives, both Irish and Welsh, with a French connection via St. Martin of Tours, will round out the course.
All texts will be available in English translation and the majority of them available in a Course Reader. These will include: the Irish wisdom text, Audacht Morainn [The Testimony of Moran]; Cáin Adamnáin [the law of Adomnan], Cáin Domnaig [the law of Sunday] and Cáin Darí [the law of Dari]; The Irish Penitentials (extracts), the “Monastery of Tallaght”; the “Martyrology of Oengus” and the “Old Irish Poems of Blathmac”; The Voyage of St. Brendan; and the following saints’ lives: Adomnan’s Life of Columba, Muirchú’s Life of St. Patrick, Cogitosus’s Life of St. Brigid, Rhigyfarch’s Life of St. David, Lifris’s Life of St. Cadog, and Sulpicius’s Life of St. Martin.
Course requirements include a midterm and final examination.
No prerequisites, although a basic knowledge of Christianity is required.
- Reader: TBA
- Kelly, Fergus, ed. & tr. Audacht Morainn. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976.
- O’Meara, John J. tr. The Voyage of St. Brendan. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997.
- Murphy, Gerard, tr. Early Irish Lyrics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.
No prerequisites, although a basic knowledge of Christianity is required.
Courses in Other Departments:
Comparative Literature 165: Comparative Mythology: Celtic, Norse, Greek
acceptable major/minor elective
A study of Indo-European mythology as it is preserved in some of the earliest myth texts in Celtic, Norse, and Greek literatures. The meaning of myth will be examined and compared from culture to culture to see how this meaning may shed light on the ethos of each society as it is reflected in its literary works.The role of oral tradition in the preservation of early myth will also be explored. The Celtic texts that will be read are the Irish Second Battle of Mag Tuired and The Táin, and in Welsh, the tales of Lludd and Llefelys and Math; the Norse texts will include Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, the Ynglinga Saga, and the Poetic Edda; the Greek texts are Hesiod’s Theogony and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. All texts will be available in English translation.
Course requirements include a midterm and final examination.
No prerequisites.
Linguistics 131: Indo-European Comparative Linguistics
acceptable major/minor elective
3 units
202 Wheeler
TuTh 12:30-2
Gary B Holland
L&S Breadth: Social & Behavioral Sciences
The affinities of the Indo-European languages and the reconstruction of their common ancestor.
Scandinavian 160: Scandinavian Myth and Religion
acceptable major/minor elective
MWF 10-11 Spring 2018, 3106 Etcheverry. Instructor: Jonas Wellendorf
Units: 4
L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature OR Philosophy & Values
Who were the Norse gods? Why did they have to die? And how do we know? This course presents a survey of Scandinavian myth and religion from prehistory through the conversion to Christianity (eleventh century), as illustrated in narrative and, to a lesser extent, archaeological materials. The approach will be primarily source-critical, with some use of comparative materials from other mythologies. By the end of the course, students should know the sources well, have an understanding of the major problems involved in this study, and be aware of the more important scholarly trends in the field. Three hours of lecture and discussion per week.
Texts:
Edda by Snorri Sturluson, trans. Anthony Faulkes, ISBN-13: 978-0460876162
The Poetic Edda (second edition), trans. Carolyne Larrington, ISBN-13: 978-0199675340
Norse Mythology, by John Lindow, ISBN-13: 978-0195153828
A number of additional readings which will be available in a course reader
Prerequisites: None, although some background in folklore and mythology, religious studies, medieval literature and history, or Scandinavian culture is likely to prove helpful.