The neoclassical influence in contemporary Irish drama

• Main Author: Jones, Richard Conrad
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1999
• Subjects: Aeschylus (522-456 BC); Ancient languages; Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989); British & Irish literature; British and Irish literature; Congreve, William (1670-1729); Euripides (484-406 BC); Friel, Brian; Heaney, Seamus; Literature; Modern literature; Paulin, Tom; Shaw, George Bernard (1856-1950); Sophocles (496?-06 BC); Theater
• ISBN: 9780599756175; 0599756179

After a lengthy period of apparent indifference to classical adaptation, Irish writers suddenly produced three different versions of the Antigone story in 1984 alone. Since that time, all three of those poet/playwrights—Aidan Mathews, Brendan Kennelly and Tom Paulin—have written other adaptations, as well, and they have been joined by such other authors as Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Frank McGuinness, and Colin Teevan. A number of other dramatists have written work which refers to classical sources or have translated Greek originals. This study concentrates on Irish dramatic neoclassical adaptations which have received a professional theatre production in Ireland since 1984. Of particular interest are textual changes which reflect contemporary concerns: feminism, civil rights, the on-going tensions in Northern Ireland, etc. A number of critical strategies are employed: a recognition of the fact that the various plays and playwrights under consideration have different agendas, different aesthetic strategies. Theory—post-colonialism, semiotics, feminism, structuralism, post-structuralism—is employed to explicate the plays rather than vice versa: and the centerpiece of this project is a close reading of some eight plays, with roughly an equal number of works receiving a somewhat more cursory treatment. Introductory chapters outline the scope of the argument, define terms, and describe the general literary and political background against which these plays were written. Subsequently, the work of five playwrights—Mathews (Antigone and, to a lesser extent, Trojans), Paulin (The Riot Act [Antigone] and Seize the Fire [Prometheus Bound]), Kennelly ( Antigone, Medea, and The Trojan Women), Heaney ( The Cure at Troy [Philoctetes]), and Teevan ( Iph…(Iphigenia in Aulis)—is discussed in some detail. Each chapter includes a brief discussion of the dramatist's life and work, and enough of a precis of each play to enable the reader to note, in particular, those points at which it diverges from the Greek source. The bulk of each chapter is a discussion of items of particular interest. Finally, a chapter is devoted to works which fall just outside the purview of this study, and a concluding chapter attempts to provide some context for the phenomenon of Irish neoclassicism.