More Irish Literature

Instructor: Rhoda Flaxman

Time: Tuesdays from 2-4 p.m.

Location: Wellfleet Preservation Hall

Dates: October 17, 24, November 7, 14, and October 31 on Zoom.

Expanding on explorations of how Irish writers make art from their historical conditions, this semester we’ll read and discuss the following five novels:

“Old God’s Time,” by Sebastian Barry

“Death and Nightingales,” by Eugene McCabe

“Fools of Fortune,” by William Trevor

“The Spinning Heart,” by Donal Ryan

“This is Happiness,” by Niall Williams.

Throughout this course  we’ll focus on innovative techniques for telling a story, and try to answer two questions :  

How do Irish writers make art from the historical record?

What it is about the Irish culture that generates such outsized and celebrated literary output?

This literature course will advance according to a combination of mini-lectures to set the context and discussions shaped by questions sent before every class. Participants may enroll either in the zoom class ( Wednesdays from 10-noon) or the class in person (Tuesdays from 2-4 p.m.). Each class will be limited to 25 participants. 

Highly-recommended background reading:

“We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland” (Fintan O’Toole, W.W. Norton,2023). 

 “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” (Patrick Radden Keefe, Doubleday, 2019).