Twentieth-century Irish drama : mirror up to nation

Bibliographic Information

Twentieth-century Irish drama : mirror up to nation

Christopher Murray

Manchester University Press, 1997

  • : hardback
  • : pbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-268) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: hardback ISBN 9780719041563

Description

The Irish Dramatic Movement gave to the world major playwrights such as Yeats, Synge, Lady Gregory, O'Casey and Beckett, while in more recent times the international stage has come to appreciate the talents of a new generation of irish playwrights, from Brian Field to Sebastian Barry and Marina Carr. In addition, since 1969, the drama of Northern Ireland, on and off the stage, has claimed world-wide attention. Preoccupied with questions of identity and national self-realisation, it was only after the achievement of independence in 1922 that the theatre assumed a more critical, analytic and demythologising role in society. It retained, however, the notion of a dynamic, of a system of beliefs open to wider possibilities than the established ideology fostered and controlled, keeping alive the idea of cultural revolt and renewal. Thus Irish drama owes its imaginative power to both its energetic involvement with the cultural transformations, as well as to more acceptable modes of representation and critique. This volume provides a perfect overview of a nation's theatre read in the light of a nation's self-definition. Mediating between history and its troubled relation with politics and art, the book attempts to do justice to the enabling and mirroring preoccupations of Irish drama.

Table of Contents

  • Yeat's theatre of the heart
  • Lady Gregory - coming to terms
  • Synge - ironic revolutionary
  • O'Casey - in search of a hero
  • into the twilight - Robinson, Johnston, Carroll
  • shades of the prisonhouse - Shiels, D'Alton, Molloy, Behan
  • revolutionary times - "A generation of Playwrights"
  • "A modern ecstacy" - playing the North
  • "The National Dreamlife" - the contemporary drama.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780719041570

Description

The Irish Dramatic Movement gave to the world major playwrights such as Yeats, Synge, Lady Gregory, O'Casey and Beckett, while in more recent times the international stage has come to appreciate the talents of a new generation of irish playwrights, from Brian Field to sebastian Barry and Marina Carr. In addition, since 1969, the drama of Northern Ireland, on and off the stage, has claimed world-wide attention. Preoccupied with questions of identity and national self-realisation, it was only after the achievement of independence in 1922 that the theatre assumed a more critical, analytic and demythologising role in society. It retained, however, the notion of a dynamic, of a system of beliefs open to wider possibilities than the established ideology fostered and controlled, keeping alive the idea of cultural revolt and renewal. Thus Irish drama owes its imaginative power to both its energetic involvement with the cultural transformations, as well as to more acceptable modes of representation and critique. This volume provides a perfect overview of a nation's theatre read in the light of a nation's self-definition. Mediating between history and its troubled relation with politics and art, the book attempts to do justice to the enabling and mirroring preoccupations of Irish drama.

Table of Contents

  • Yeat's theatre of the heart
  • Lady Gregory - coming to terms
  • Synge - ironic revolutionary
  • O'Casey - in search of a hero
  • into the twilight - Robinson, Johnston, Carroll
  • shades of the prisonhouse - Shiels, D'Alton, Molloy, Behan
  • revolutionary times - "A generation of Playwrights"
  • "A modern ecstacy" - playing the North
  • "The National Dreamlife" - the contemporary drama.

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