Tutor information
Michael Parker
Michael Parker works for Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education, and is a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes University. He has published six books to date on poetry, fiction and drama from the Republic and Northern Ireland, and their historical contexts, but has written also on British Literature, Eastern European and Postcolonial Writing. He is currently completing Seamus Heaney: Legacies, Afterlives, a critical study of the poet's complete oeuvre.
Courses
The course will focus on Heaney’s highly accessible collection, Seeing Things (1991), written during his tenure as Oxford Professor of Poetry. As his lectures reflect his responses to diverse range of poets, we will also look at samples of their poetry.
As Irish writing continues to enjoy a very high international profile and reputation, this course offers an opportunity to enjoy a selection of outstanding contemporary works of fiction.
'Postcolonial Fictions' will provide a valuable foundation for further study, and will introduce you to first-rate novels by writers from diverse backgrounds and cultures, whose works offer a powerful critique of the colonial project.
Novels by Sally Rooney, Clare Keegan, Maggie O’Farrell and Audrey Magee have been seen exemplifying the vibrancy and diversity of current Irish writing. Assess the literary merits of their work and how their concerns resonate both in Ireland and beyond.