WiSe 19/20: PS-Introduction to Cultural Studies: Bloody Sunday and Its Cultural Represantations
Kübra Özermis
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On 30 January 1972 the Parachute Regiment of the British army shot and killed 14 unarmed civil rights marchers in Derry. This massacre became known as Bloody Sunday and was a turning point in the conflict in Northern Ireland. While eyewitnesses accused the army of shooting innocent civilians, the most of soldiers involved insist to this day that they have been shot at first. The shooting of unarmed marchers led to the end of the civil rights era and the escalation of military and paramilitary violence. Over the decades there has been a struggle over the legacy and the narrative authority of the massacre. Two different inquiries, established in 1972 and 1998 respectively, have examined the events of the day and came to completely different versions. This struggle has now been intensified through the impending no-deal Brexit scenario that brings the unsolved aspects of the Northern Irish conflict back on the political agenda in Ireland and in Britain.
This seminar focuses on the representation of Bloody Sunday in various cultural expressions. Students will explore the portrayal of the massacre in poetry, plays and films as well as look at the local commemoration culture around the massacre in Derry. The analyses of the artistic and communal responses to Bloody Sunday will enable students to understand the representation of cultural memory, identity and trauma in the conflict context in Northern Ireland.
Students should acquire a copy of Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City. All the other texts will be made available throughout the seminar.
close16 Class schedule
Regular appointments