English 280: A Yeats Summer School in Ireland
Dr. Rob Doggett, SUNY Geneseo, English
Email: Doggett@geneseo.edu
General Overview
This 200-level, 4-credit English course will provide an introduction to the writings of William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet and dramatists who is widely recognized as among the most important and influential artists of the twentieth century. The course will begin with an online component (to be completed over a one week period) in which students, drawing upon lectures from Dr. Doggett and Dr. Joe Cope (SUNY Geneseo, History), will analyze selections from Yeats’s poetry, will explore the major themes and issues that emerge in his writings, and will become familiar with late nineteenth and early twentieth century Irish history, particularly the movements and events (the rise of Irish nationalism, the Easter Rising, the Irish Civil War, etc.) that deeply influenced Yeats’s work.
The next two weeks of the course will take place in Sligo, Ireland, where students will attend the Yeats Summer School. In addition to discovering the Irish landscape that provided the inspiration for much of Yeats’s art, students will attend lectures delivered by some of the world’s foremost Yeats scholars, and will participate in two, one-week seminars (2 hours per day). The lectures will provide an overview of the Yeats canon, moving from his early writings to his later works, and will address those themes and issues that currently occupy a central position in Yeats scholarship. The seminars will cover a range of specific topics. Taught by experts from universities throughout the world and comprised of no more than twelve students each, the seminars will provide students with the opportunity to explore, in depth, a topic of their choosing.
Learning Outcomes
Students who complete this course will:
* Demonstrate a thorough understanding of Yeats’s major works.
* Demonstrate an understanding of Yeats’s works in relation to Irish history and developments in literary modernism.
* Demonstrate an ability to analyze Yeats’s works in depth.
Texts
The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. Richard Finneran, ed. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
Holdeman, David. The Cambridge Introduction to W.B. Yeats. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Grading
Online components: 30%
Attendance: 30%
Major Essay: 40%
Online components
Our website contains a number of resources designed to help you prepare for the Yeats Summer School. Please do your best to make use of as many of those resources as possible because, the more you know in advance about Yeats, the more you learn from (and the more you’ll enjoy) your time at the Yeats summer school. Start by watching Dr. Cope’s lectures on Irish history. This will give some important background. Next, focus on Dr. Doggett’s lectures. You need to complete four short essays (about 1-2 pages each) on Dr. Doggett’s lectures. The lectures are broken up into four phases: early, transitional, middle, and late. These correspond to the stages in Yeats’s career. For each phase, watch the introductory lecture and then at least two specific lectures from that phase. When you are finished, write a short essay in which you respond to the lectures. In your essay, trace out and respond to a major theme, issue, or idea that you see running throughout his early phase. At a minimum, be sure that your essay demonstrates a basic understanding of the lectures. Once you’ve completed your essay on the early phase, watch the lectures on the transitional phase and complete a second essay. Do the same for the lectures on the middle phase and on the late phase. After completing all of these essays (four total), email them as attachments to Dr. Doggett. Make sure that you email these essays prior to leaving for Ireland.
Attendance and Participation
Enthusiastic student participation is crucial to a successful study abroad program, so for this class, participation is especially important. You will be expected participate enthusiastically in all facets of the course; that means being on time for all events, working well with other students, attending the lectures, and contributing to the seminars. In order to receive credit for this class, you must: 1) attend a minimum of 10 lectures and 2) attend EACH class for both of your seminars (i.e., all the seminar meetings for week one and all the seminar meetings for week two). Attendance sheets will be available at the entrance to the lecture hall and your seminar leaders will take attendance.
Major Essay
Prior to departure for Ireland, please email Dr. Doggett with an essay topic. Specifically, identify a theme or issue that you want to focus on while in Ireland (a good idea is to match your topic with at least one of the topics from your seminars). While in Ireland, take notes on anything pertaining to your topic. When you return, write a 5-7 page essay in which you formulate an argument about your topic. For example, suppose your topic is Yeats and Gender. You might create an argument that states, “Yeats’s poetry tends to idealize women, particularly the figure of Maud Gonne, but this idealization process is of a specific kind–the female figure is associated with the spiritual health of the nation, which means that Yeats grants women an abstract, spiritual power while denying them real political power in the emerging Irish nation.” Once you create an argument, prove it by: 1) closely analyzing one or more major works (poems or plays), 2) referencing outside research sources, and 3) referencing the lectures, seminars, and other events that you attended while in Sligo. Please complete the essay within one week of returning to the U.S. Email the essay to Dr. Doggett when it is completed.