Trinity College Dublin

The course provides a brief introduction to prehistoric Ireland, and it covers in more detail the period from the arrival of Christianity in the fifth century to the eve of the first Viking attacks at the end of the eighth. The focus is wide-ranging, from early Irish politics and the emergence of a high-kingship to St Patrick and the impact of Christianization, from Brehon law and the bonds of society to the study of landscape and settlement and early Irish farming, and from Hiberno-Latin and Gaelic literature to the visual art that culminated in the creation of the greatest masterpiece of the Golden Age, the Book of Kells.

The course provides an introduction to, and survey of, the theory of welfare economics. Studets examine the broad philosophical and legal basis of a market economy, paying particular attention to the issues of property rights and the rule of law. Students then explore the issue of collective benefits arising from public goods, highlighting the information problem associated with the optimal provision of such goods. This is followed by a detailed discussion of externalities, where, among other things, students study the different ways in which they are addressed: private solutions, public policy, and prohibition of markets.

Students study one of the most exciting periods of British literary and social history, when tumultuous political and social changes such as revolution and industrialization produced a range of remarkable and enduring literary responses. The course examines British Romantic literature through the close study of a broad range of prose, poetry, and non-fiction. The course is structured around examination of the work of the "Big Six" high Romantic writers, whose work is read alongside that of noncanonical Romantic writers. It examines a wide range of literary genres from the period, including various forms of poetry, the novel, and non-fictional prose writing, and offers the opportunity to study both canonical and lesser-known authors. 

This course offers an introduction to Old English, the form of English used in England between the 5th and 11th century beside languages like Celtic, Old Norse, and Latin. Students read a selection of Old English texts in translation. A central theme of the course is the extent to which we can meaningfully locate the origins of England and the English in the Old English period.

This course examines the phenomenon of written language from a range of perspectives. It begins by exploring the beginnings and historical development of writing, in the process considering the ways in which different writing systems (e.g., word-writing, syllable writing, alphabetic writing) represent different aspects of language. Further points of discussion are drawn from among the following: the debate around the social and individual consequences of literacy; the orthography of English; the mental processes involved in reading; written texts as coherent communicative acts; information structure and flow in written texts; differences between the language of speech and the language of writing; and the relationship between written language and communication technologies.