Roddy Doyle

Kursbeschreibung / -kommentar

This course will consider one of Ireland's most important contemporary novelists, playwrights and screenwriters, Roddy Doyle. From his first major success with The Commitments (1987), Doyle has made his name as an imaginative voice and critical commentator not only on some of the crucial issues of modern Irish society from the 1960s to the current day (with his Barrytown trilogy: The Commitments, The Snapper (1990) and The Van (1991); The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996) and its sequel Paula Spencer (2006); Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1993) or the recent collection of short stories entitled The Deportees (2007). He has also tackled Irish history and the nation's struggle for independence in his account of the Easter Rising through the eyes of a young boy, Henry Smart in A Star Called Henry (1999) and Oh Play That Thing (2004).
In the seminar, we will consider a selection of these novels in more detail to see how Doyle portrays his native land and its people, often with a raw sense of realism paired with a great talent for comedy. In addition to the novels, we will also consider a number of film adaptations of Doyle's work.

Literatur
Suggested Reading:
A course bibliography and a semester apparatus will be made available at the beginning of the course.
Students are advised to buy a copy of The Barrytown Trilogy, The Woman Who Walked into Doors, A Star Called Henry and The Deportees (all can be purchased through Amazon used books, for example).