Syllabus

Beginning with this issue, HCM presents: SYLLABUS an inside look at a cross section of courses currently taught at Holy Cross. This inaugural profile highlights a new class offered this semester by the English department.

Growing Up American

Professor: Patrick J. Ireland

Description: An examination of the portrayal of American childhood in literature through the study of selected works by 10 American writers—the course considers the influence of each author’s perspective and personal experience on narrative development. Topics of discussion include: the perception of adulthood as a product of childhood experience; the consequences of cultural and social condtioning on maturation; the significance of relationships; and the effects of race, gender, ethnicity and history on shaping an individual’s early years.

Selected readings: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain; House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton; The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger; Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson; Sula, by Toni Morrison; and The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, by Maxine Hong Kingston.

Requirements: Three papers and a final examination

Professor’s bio: A longtime associate professor of English at Holy Cross and a native of Kentucky, Professor Ireland received his Ph.D. from St. Louis University; the focus of his doctoral research was 20th-century American literature, with a specialty in Southern literature. Involved for the past 10 years with the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, Ireland has conducted literature and medicine seminars at several area hospitals, including UMASS Memorial in Worcester, as a way to reconnect a sense of the humanities in medicine. In the fall semester—as part of Montserrat, the College’s new program for all first-year students—Ireland will be offering two courses, in literature and medicine and literature and science.

Quote: “The idea for this course came out of my foundation work—I began to think a good deal about my own family history and the formative moments of my own childhood. It occurred to me that there are various kinds of growing up experiences in literature, though we most often focus on the coming-of-age formula witnessed in so many American short stories.”

By Pam Reponen