Curs optional Colonial Themes and the Politics of Representation in Irish Literature

A.
Chapter 1
THE ANGLO-NORMAN LEGACY
1. Strongbow conquered much of the east, including:
a) Oriel, Dublin, Ulidia
b) Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin
c) Wexford, Leinster, Oriel

2. The Song of Dermot and the Earl, is a:

a) chanson de geste
b) journey
c) satirical Latin poetry

3. The Goliards were a group of clergy who:

a) composed in Old French for "songs of heroic deeds“
b) spending her declining years in pray
c) protested the growing contradictions within the Church

4. The poem O Woman Full of Wile has the characteristic:

a) is one of the finest examples of the Irish Danta Gradha
b) survives in only one manuscript, Harley MS 913
c) describes a comical paradise full of food, drink, and loose women.

Chapter 2
ENGLAND’S “OTHER”: INSCRIBING AND RE- INSCRIBING IRELAND’S STORY
1. Henry VIII is declared King of Ireland in the year:
a) 1649
b) 1654
c) 1551

2. Which of the following colonial oppositions are correct:

a) Civilisation / Barbarism
b) Self / Colonised
c) The West / Other
 3. Sir John Davies English poet and lawyer:
a) became in 1600 secretary to Sir Charles Blount
b) In 1610 he wrote the Discoverie of the True Causes
c) became in 1605 attorney general in Ireland

4. The Cronicle History of Henry the fifth, it is a play by:

a) William Shakespeare
b) Henry V
c) Dion Boucicault

Chapter 3
COLONIALISM AND THE NATIONALIST IMAGINARY

1. The Battle of the Boyne took place at:

a) Kinsale
b) Carrickfergus
c) Scotland

2. The cultural group Protestant Ascendancy has the following features:

a) politically and economically disabled, retained links with Scotland
b) spread throughout the four provinces and including the Old English
c) elite group, landowners, loyal to Britain

3. The mother goddess of the Tuatha de Danaan is:

a) Danu
b) Cailleach Beara
c) Aogan O Rathaille

4. The play Cathleen Ni Houlihan, written by William Butler Yeats’s use of what Valente
calls:
a) double-woman trope
b) dynamic tension
c) naturalistic precision
 Chapter 4
PROTESTANTLITERARYTROPES: THE‘BIG HOUSE’

1. Drama The Big House offers scenes from the recent life of a Big House family, which
span the years :
a) 1926 and 1937
b) 1918 and 1923
c) 1923 and 1937

2. During the Anglo-Irish War and the subsequent Irish Civil War:
a) many stately homes of the old landed class were burned down
b) subsequent failures of the potato resulted in the death of as many as 1,000,000 Irish
c) was abolished the Irish Parliament

3. Which of the following sentences are true:

a) In 1720 The Declaratory Act gave to the Lord Townsend legislative jurisdiction over
Irish affairs
b) „The Constitution of 1782” including a series of concessions to the Irish
Parliament
c) The Act of Union not abolished the Irish Parliament

4. Protestant Ascendancy is a term used to refer to the:

a) radical Protestant
b) First Protestant Volunteer Force
c) Anglican

B
W.B. Yeats: Purgatory (1938)

a) Provide a brief overview of the text.

The old man was born in the ruined house. His mother was an aristocratic woman who
fell in love with a groom and married him despite the opposition from her family. The old
man’s mother died while giving birth to him. She didn’t know that her husband wasted all her
money on alcohol, women and playing cards. The old man’s father destroyed the spirit of the
house by doing wrong things. When the old man was sixteen years old, his father burnt down
the house when he was drunk. Therefore, he stabbed his father to death with a knife which he
kept using for cutting food. It was his mother’s wedding anniversary and he saw his father
riding home with a wine bottle under his arm. The old man heard the hoof beats of horse and
a young lady appearing in the windo. The son threatened to kill the old man as he had not been
given the due share of his property. The old man then killed his son with the same knife which
 he had used for killing his father. He believed to have broken a cycle of violence by stopping
his son from murdering him. He thought that by killing his son, he had prevented to add more
sin at his mother’s share. He believed that now his mother’s soul would be free from purgatory.

b) Identify the elements that renders it characteristically Irish.

Purgatory is a play that resembles a dialogue poem which W. B. Yeats wrote at various stages
of his life. This chapter discusses Yeats' Purgatory, its allusion and implication to Irish social
history and German culture and its importance to Yeats' career. The chapter also focuses on the
structure of the play, the metalinguistic aspect and metadramatic dimensions of the play, as well
as on the fascistic tone that underlay Yeats' Purgatory.
This vision-like atmosphere also builds up, through the images of the 'actual' play. The
scenery for example; the ruined house and a bare tree in the background, is also an archetypal
symbol of passing, the picture of the temporary. We can likewise see, that the scene is not fully
defined; we have the feeling that the house is not a constant image, but changes with the turning
points of the drama. It is a plastic, pliable organ, continuously changing with the thoughts of the
old man

c) Argument its relevance to the broader thematic chapter/ subchapter which it is included.

Purgatory is included in the subchapter Drama. The play its relevance for this subchapter
because presents a complex variety of understanding, with no definite knowledge of around whom
does the play center or where does it happen, how should the drama be understood, but works as
a complete whole, with an indistinguishable complexity of varieties and comprehension.
Also it can be observed, that the scene is not fully defined; its the feeling that the house is not a
constant image, but changes with the turning points of the drama. It is a plastic, pliable organ,
continuously changing with the thoughts of the old man.

d) Provide an explanation for your choice.

Purgatory is a story of remorseful of a departed soul that committed mistakes on itself while
being alive. In order to purify itself, it is undergoing suffering in purgatory. It is also concerned
with the living beings who suffer the consequences of the sin committed by the dead people
while alive and the help rendered by the living beings to get the soul released from purgatory.

The old man believes that by murdering his son, he has stopped the boy to have a son of his own
who would kill him after attaining 16 years of age, thereby breaking the endless cycle of
violence. He also believes that by killing his son, he helps his mother’s soul to get released from
purgatory.

Purgatory is a story of remorseful of a departed soul that

committed mistakes on itself while being alive. In order to purify itself,
it is undergoing suffering in purgatory. It is also concerned with the
living beings who suffer the consequences of the sin committed by the
dead people while alive and the help rendered by the living beings to get
the soul released from purgatory.