readings for the week of Feb 16-20

Folks:

Here is the next chunk of readings, pertinent to our discussions for Wed and Fri next. Find the discussion questions here, but the actual links to readings over on WebCT. Feel free to comment here, however!

Readings Packet: Kuno Meyer 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).



2.6.01


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


· 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?












O hAllmhurain [Tudor and Stuart Ireland”]


As you read this material, ask yourself the following questions:

· What elements of culture and tradition have the successive invaders of Ireland sought to control? How and why?

· What has been the impact of such oppressive control on the ways the Irish themselves have thought about indigenous culture? Has it “politicized” culture?

· What other trends or phenomena have emerged from these waves of invasion? What has been the impact on the native Irish? What has been the impact upon the colonizers?

· [Hint: the relationship between invaders and indigenous peoples has been very complicated and there has been a great deal of cultural exchange. Think about ways in which this cultural exchange plays out in the art forms we’ve been looking at.]