The Irish Identity: Independence, History, and Literature

The Irish Renaissance—or Irish Revival—that occurred around the turn of the 20th century fused and elevated aesthetic and civic ambitions, fueling a cultural climate of masterful artistic creation and resolute political self-determination reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance. Delve into this remarkable period with The Irish Identity: Independence, History, and Literature. Over the course of 36 enthralling lectures, Professor Marc Conner of Washington and Lee University reveals the multifaceted story of the Irish Renaissance through an exploration of its complex history and remarkable literature.

After laying the groundwork of ancient Irish history and centuries of British rule—from the Norman invasion in the 12th century through the brutal Penal Laws and the Great Famine—Professor Conner brings you inside the Irish Revival, when a group of writers began taking a keen interest in the uniquely Irish culture, from its language to its art to its mythology. This fascination fed into the growing demand for Irish nationhood, for the arts, culture, and politics of the time are inextricable.

All Lectures:
1. Roots of Irish Identity: Celts to Monks
2. Gaelic Ireland's Fall: Vikings to Cromwell
3. The Penal Laws and Protestant Ascendancy
4. Ireland at the Turn of the 19th Century
5. Daniel O'Connell and the Great Famine
6. The Celtic Revival
7. Shaw and Wilde: Irish Wit, London Stage
8. W. B. Yeats and the Irish Renaissance
9. Yeats in the 1890s
10. Lady Gregory: The Woman behind the Revival
11. J. M. Synge and the Aran Islands
12. James Joyce: Emerging Genius of Dublin
13. Joyce's Dubliners: Anatomy of a City
14. The Abbey Theatre
15. Lady Gregory as the People's Playwright
16. Early Plays of J. M. Synge
17. Synge's Playboy of the Western World
18. The Dublin Lockout and World War I
19. The 1916 Easter Rising
20. Joyce's Portrait of the Artist
21. Joyce's Portrait as Modernist Narrative
22. Yeats as the Great 20th-Century Poet
23. Michael Collins and the War of Independence
24. The Irish Civil War
25. Ulysses: A Greek Epic in an Irish World
26. Three Episodes from Ulysses
27. Molly Bloom: Joyce's Voice of Love
28. Sean O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy
29. Life and Legacy of Lady Gregory
30. Yeats: The Tower Poems and Beyond
31. Blasket Island Storytellers
32. Finnegans Wake: Joyce's Final Epic
33. Patrick Kavanagh: After the Renaissance
34. Modern Ireland in Paint and Glass
35. De Valera's Ireland: The 1930s
36. Seamus Heaney's Poetry of Remembrance