HISTORY – HERSTORY: Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland
These two late 20th-century Irish poets confront/examine Ireland’s past and present — not only commenting on historical events but also revealing their own lives and experiences. Poems describing historical events typically do not last long: they are forgotten with the incident. Boland and Heaney write about Northern Ireland, the history of the Irish Republic, seeking ways to make sense of and survive difficult personal times and/or an inherited past (famine, war, exile, love, and loss). Treating them together, we can appreciate the role gender plays in their insights; Heaney and Boland do not memorialize moments in Irish history, but instead personalize those moments for us to share. Class Limit: 25
Instructor John Ward has been professor and chair of Kenyon College (Gambier, OH) English Department and has served as Dean of Centre College (Danville, KY). He earned his B.A. from Amherst College and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and has taught courses in 18th- and 19th-century British literature and the history of the British novel. He has published on 18th- and 19th-century British works, as well as those of Vachel Lindsay and Robert Lowell.
Instructor Maryanne Ward is retired after a 40-year career in small college education. She chaired Kenyon College (Gambier, OH) Humanities program and served as academic dean until moving to Centre College (Danville, KY) as professor of English and chair of the Humanities program. Her area of special interest and scholarship is 19th-century British literature. Among other topics, her publications have examined the relationship between literature, landscape, and painting.