The University of Alberta
English 481: Seamus Heaney 
Winter, 2006, Section B1, MWF 1:00-1:50, HC 2-42

Instructor:  Dr. Robert Brazeau, rbrazeau@ualberta.ca   		Office:  HC 3-65
Office Hours: MW: 10-11, 2-3 or by appointment	     		Phone: 492-4708
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Objectives: This course will examine the literary career of the Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.  Looking at his poetic, critical, and often ignored journalistic writing, we will examine the influence of Irish politics on Heaney’s work, and the enduring influence that Heaney has exerted on a generation of writers and intellectuals in Ireland.  We will carefully consider representations of violence, sexuality, and place in Heaney’s poetry, as well as examine Heaney’s work as a translator.  While our most abiding interest will be with Heaney’s poetry, we will nevertheless examine the full and various output of this important contemporary writer.

Texts: 
Finders Keepers and Opened Ground, both by Seamus Heaney.

Supplemental Works:
“Intimidation.”  Malahat Review 17 (1971). 34.
“Old Derry’s Walls.”  The Listener.  October 24, 1968: 521-23.
“The Pre-Natal Mountain: Vision and Irony in Recent Irish Poetry.”  The Georgia Review.  42.3 (1988): 465-480.
“Raftery’s Killeadan.”  Éire-Ireland  31. 3-4 (1996): 9-10.
“Unhappy and at Home: Interview with Seamus Heaney.”  By Seamus Deane. The Crane Bag 1.1 (1977): 66-72.

Evaluation:
Term Work 	70% of final grade
Final Exam	30% of final grade (take-home exam)

Distribution of Term Marks
1 – seminar or 1200 word essay		   	30 %
1 – 2000-2500 word research essay	   		50 %  
Class participation				   	20 %
Total term work					100%

Instructions and Regulations

1.  Essays are to be handed in at the beginning of class, and to be your own.  Plagiarism is a serious academic offense and will be discussed in class. The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.ualberta.ca/secretariat/appeals.htm) and avoid any behaviour that could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.

2.  Extensions on assignments will only be given due to illness and will only be granted when you present a doctor’s note indicating the dates your illness prevented you from completing your work.  Late papers will be docked 5% per day, including weekends, to a maximum of seven days, after which they will not be accepted.

3. Class participation is essential to a course like this, and it will be the student’s responsibility to have readings done before class and to come to meetings fully prepared to discuss the works at hand.

4.  Policy about course outlines can be found in Section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar.

5.  Students should consult the attached handout for information about appeals, reassessments, plagiarism, and external help with assignments.

Tentative Course Outline for English 481

This schedule is subject to additions and/or deletions. We will take up the assigned readings on the designated date unless otherwise specified; you are expected to have the entire work read for the date noted.

Week 1:  Introduction and Death of a Naturalist (“Mossbawn”)
Week 2:  Door Into the Dark (“John Clare’s Prog”)
Week 3:  Wintering Out (“Something to Write Home About”)
Week 4: Wintering Out (“Belfast”)
Week 5: North (“Place and Displacement”)
Week 6: North  (“Feeling Into Words”; “Crediting Poetry” in OG)
Week 7: Reading Week
Week 8: North
Week 9: Field Work
Week 10: Field Work
Week 11: Station Island
Week 12: The Haw Lantern
Week 13: The Spirit Level and Electric Light
Week 14: Review

Essays Topics:

Discuss the representation of gender or women in Heaney's poetry.  

Discuss the representation of death, murder, or violence in Heaney's work.  You may want to research the genre of the elegy for this topic.

Consider the poems that adopt a self-consciousness in the face of language or language use and discuss the meta-critical engagement with language in Heaney's work.

Discuss the significance of place and emplacement in Heaney's work.  You may also want to consider what Heaney is saying about community and its coherence in these works.

In "Hercules and Antaeus," Heaney appears to be referring to post-colonial theory as "pap for the dispossessed."   Discuss this critical assertion, and consider its validity within Irish cultural politics.