Here is our new curriculum director, Jim McDonnell, at the annual membership meeting on May 2, introducing his own course as well as the rest of the 13 faculty members.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS – FALL 2010
1. Jim McDonnell – The Literature of Northern Ireland, 1966-1998 jmcdonne@carleton.edu
The biggest event in the Irish Republic in 1966 was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, while in Northern Ireland discontent was rising among the Catholic population, whose peaceful civil rights protests led to 30 years of terrible civil war between those who wanted it to remain British and those who believed it could be liberated from “British occupation” by means of military action. “The Troubles” were essentially resolved by the “Good Friday Agreement” of 1998 whereby the IRA agreed to abandon the use of violence to achieve its objective of a united Ireland.
In literature the main event of 1966 was the publication of Seamus Heaney’s first volume of poetry (Death of a Naturalist). Heaney’s instant fame was the first sign that in the midst of tribal and sectarian violence an extraordinary burst of creativity was occurring in Northern Ireland in poetry, fiction and drama. We will read a selection of that literature: poetry by Heaney and Derek Mahon; fiction including Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark; and – Translations, the finest play of Brian Friel, Ireland’s most celebrated living playwright.
Jim McDonnell retired from Carleton College in 2007 after teaching there for 38 years in the English Department. He started as a specialist in Victorian literature, but in the past twenty years his interests have changed to Irish Literature and Shakespeare. He was born of Irish parents in London, but his earliest memories are of being a child in the West of Ireland, where he lived from ages 2 to 10. He has returned many times to Ireland including four times as director of the Carleton Ireland program, and three times as leader of adult groups.
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