Next readings (certainly by Tues Feb 6)

Readings Packet: Short poems in the Hoagland-edited excerpts

Two of these are pre-Christian pagan poems: both “Amergin” and “From the Triads of Ireland” exemplify Irish approaches to imagery, nature references, poetic structure, and the art of the memory; the balance are early-Christian poems. What are these approaches: to imagery, nature, structure, and the memory? How would you specifically describe Irish approaches in these poems? The Christian poems are from the same period (and some of the same people) of the peregrini: the Christian monks, clerics, and scholars who went back to Europe after the Fall of Rome, founded monasteries, libraries, and universities, and preserved the link with ancient Greek and early Christian learning. These are also the same people who created the music on the Altramar Celtic Wanderers CD (which we’ll listen to).

Readings Packet: Glassie “Introduction: At the End of a Short Winter’s Day” and “Preface”

In the “Introduction,” Glassie links history and folklore, giving a narrative of both the formal collection and study of folk-tales, and through this narrative some ideas about how history and folklore might intersect and combine. What does Glassie believe are the strengths and limitations of each of these fields? What does he see as the strength of the approach of “folk” historians like Hugh Nolan? What does Hugh Nolan or Michael Boyle bring to the study and the narrative of history that Glassie sees as lacking in the more academic works?

In the “Preface,” Glassie both summarizes a period of Irish history (roughly from St Patrick to the 19th century), with a specific focus on the ways in which the Irish have told themselves their own histories. Why do you think Glassie put this information here, along with his Acknowledgements to those who helped him put the book together? Do you think he perceives a link between the acknowledgement of those who through history preserved the folklore, and those who helped him with this book? Further to a question we’ve asked earlier: what is the historian’s responsibility to his/her own community?

Reading Packet: Glassie, "Hugh Nolan: I'll Tell You the Way It Was."
This is a short summary of the role of the "mummer's plays" (seasonal folk plays, staged in people's rural kitchens in the shortest days of the winter, with a cast of historical characters including St Patrick, St George, Oliver Cromwell, and various mythological characters as well). Read the description, see what Hugh Nolan and Glassie both have to say about the meaning and social function of the mummer's play, and then read the play's text, linked on WebCT at "Course Menu - Mummer's Play." Try reading the poetic lines aloud and see if you can figure out the appropriate timing to make the lines really swing.

Carson LNF “The Humours of Whiskey”

This is a beautiful, very complicated chapter which brings up a whole series of folkways and their interaction: food, drink, oral lore (as in “how to make or buy poitin”), names and language, and the relations between rural people (Aran Islanders) and urban folklorists (John Millington Synge, excerpts of whose fieldnotes we’ll read). Think about the following questions:

Why does Carson spend this long section talking, essentially, about booze? Surely he’s not buying into the old “Irish are drunks” trope? Hint: what does he think the power or symbolism of poitin might be?

[ALSO]
Reading Packet: Glassie, "Hugh Nolan: I'll Tell You the Way It Was."
This is a short summary of the role of the "mummer's plays" (seasonal folk plays, staged in people's rural kitchens in the shortest days of the winter, with a cast of historical characters including St Patrick, St George, Oliver Cromwell, and various mythological characters as well). Read the description, see what Hugh Nolan and Glassie both have to say about the meaning and social function of the mummer's play, and then read the play's text, linked on WebCT at "Course Menu - Mummer's Play." Try reading the poetic lines aloud and see if you can figure out the appropriate timing to make the lines really swing.