University of Galway

This course explores four plays by four different writers from the Renaissance period: Christopher Marlowe’s THE JEW OF MALTA, William Shakespeare’s THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Kyd’s THE SPANISH TRAGEDY, and Jonson’s VOLPONE. Students examine the development of theatrical drama during this era and invigilate many of the concerns of the day that were addressed by said theatre: power, race, gender, revenge etc.

The Celtic languages remain the media of communication to a greater or lesser extent in communities scattered on the western fringe of 21st-century Europe, in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany. These are the survivors of a history traceable over two and a half thousand years encompassing, at one time, nearly the whole of western Europe and much of central and eastern Europe. The modern Celtic languages interact in various ways with the societies in which they are embedded, the official and unofficial institutions of those societies (government, legislation, industry, etc.), and with the wider cultures of the countries where they are used. This course introduces students to the study of the Celtic languages in these contexts and the sociolinguistics of the Celtic languages, and considers the ways in which they are endangered as languages of the lives and thoughts of the people who use them. Students also examine ways in which their existence and status can be strengthened and expanded, through language planning, looking also at the cases of Cornish in Cornwall and Manx in the Isle of Man, where, though technically dead languages, vigorous revival movements work to prove that news of their demise was premature.

This course introduces students to the earliest evidence for the Celts, in archaeology, language and history, to show the extent and depth of Celtic cultural roots in ancient Europe, extending backwards to about 6000 BCE. The course then covers the history of the Celtic people and regions in early medieval times, including the coming of Christianity and the interactions with the Vikings, up till about AD 1000.

This is an introductory Italian language course offered to visiting students who are at the University of Galway for one semester only.