Comparative Celtic Literature

Wedi cwblhau'r modiwl dylai'r myfyrwyr fedru:

1. Understand the history of the concept of Celtic literature and some of the ideological issues connected with it.
2. Be able to discuss, with concrete examples from more than one Celtic language, some of the specific common features of medieval Celtic literatures.
3. To grasp the complexities of the relationship between these literatures and other world literatures.

This module studies literatures in the Celtic languages, particularly Irish and Welsh, focusing on the medieval period. It considers the ideological background to the development of the concept of Celtic literature, as well as issues of contact between the literatures in the Middle Ages, and the implications of the differences between them for the concept of Celticity. Specific issues addressed include: the question of archaic survivals in medieval texts from Wales and Ireland; how to distinguish cognate developments from later borrowings; some widespread motifs in Celtic literatures.

• Introduction: the question of ‘Celticity’
• Ernest Renan, Matthew Arnold, Romanticism and the ‘invention’ of Celtic literature (two sessions)
• Solar deities and culture heroes: the Indo-European context
• Nativists, anti-nativists, and post-anti-nativists
• The Bard: Celtica, Indo-Europa, and beyond (two sessions)
• Common developments in Welsh and Irish poetry
• Prosimetrum and other ‘archaisms’ reconsidered
• Inter-Celtic borrowings I: methodological issues
• Inter-Celtic borrowings II: case studies from the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (two sessions)
• Breton folklore and early Welsh poetry
• The Wild Man in Celtic literatures (two sessions)
• The Raid on the Otherworld in Celtic literatures

Mae'r modiwl hwn yn cydymffurfio a FfCChC Lefel 6