Education

Harvard University: Arts & Sciences: Celtic Languages and Literatures

Category Art and Social Sciences, English Literature, Harvard University, USA, Undergraduate
Tags Arts, Celtic, Harvard University, Languages, Literatures, Sciences

The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures offers advanced instruction and training in the languages and literatures of the Celtic-speaking peoples and administers programs leading to the PhD in Celtic Languages and Literatures. In this respect, it is unique in the United States.

PhD programs in the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures can sometimes be specially arranged so as to combine Celtic with other subjects. (See Ad Hoc Degrees.) The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures cooperates with other departments and committees in providing supplementary instruction for students who wish to work in Celtic as a special field.

Courses in Celtic have been given at Harvard for over 100 years. In 1940, a professor of Celtic languages and literatures was appointed, and beginning with the academic year 1940-41, a separate Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures was established.

The Harvard College Library is particularly strong in the Celtic field, thanks to the unremitting labors of the late Fred Norris Robinson, Gurney Professor of English Literature. It possesses over 10,000 books on the subject, as well as a considerable number of original manuscripts and a great many facsimiles of unedited material. What is perhaps even more important, however, is the scope of the Harvard collection, since it embraces the whole of the Celtic field and affords the most diversified resources for study and research in Celtic linguistics and literature.

Celtic Studies

Celtic is one subgroup of the Indo-European family of languages. Six Celtic languages have survived into the modern period: Cornish, Manx, Breton, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh. The last four are still spoken. The oldest extant Irish and Welsh texts date from the sixth century, justifying the claim that they represent the oldest non-classical literatures of Europe. Heroic narratives in prose and verse, lyric poetry, tales of the Otherworld, and legendary history are all richly attested in the Celtic literatures. Celtic tradition has influenced both the Latin and the vernacular literatures of medieval Europe, being the source, e.g., of the Arthurian cycle.

The Harvard Celtic Studies program offers instruction in the following: Old, Middle, and Modern Irish; Middle and Modern Welsh; Scottish Gaelic; historical backgrounds of early Irish and Welsh; early, medieval, and modern Irish literature in Irish and in translation; early, medieval, and modern Welsh literature in Welsh and in translation; Irish and Welsh history and law in their social context; Celtic paganism; folklore; reading of Irish manuscripts. Courses in Breton and Cornish may be available from time to time. Consult Courses of Instruction for availability of courses in a given year.

While there is no undergraduate concentration in the department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, undergraduates are welcome to enroll in most department courses; in some instances permission of the instructor must be sought. Undergraduates concentrating in Folklore and Mythology may elect Celtic as an area specialization. Undergraduates may also petition the office of Special Concentrations to pursue a degree program in Celtic Languages and Literatures.