Irish Short Story

Catalog description

This course will consider the Irish short story, with particular focus on the twentieth century and contemporary writers. We will consider Ireland’s extraordinary tradition in the short story – why has so small an island has produced so many major figures in this particular literary form and what it might this tell us about Ireland and about the form of the short story? We will also consider the way in which these stories engage with some of the enduring issues of Irishness: the relationship between the secular and the religious, gender inequality, poverty, exile, humor, class, and more.