BASC70264 - The Irish Short Story After Joyce

Course Description

Instructor: Joshua Daniel.  This course explores the short stories of three significant Irish authors writing after, and in the shadow of, James Joyce’s Dubliners: Frank O’Connor, who was also a significant scholar of the short story form and has an international short story award named after him; Edna O’Brien, who Philip Roth described as “the most gifted woman now writing in English, brought a controversial woman’s perspective to the form and won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; and finally, John McGahern, an under-read but critically acclaimed practitioner of the short story. Discussion will focus on how the authors, in their own ways, refracts the Irish perspective or experience into compressed works of fiction. Familiarity with Joyce’s Dubliners will enrich one’s reading, but it is NOT a prerequisite. Course code: BASC70264 Literature