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Palgrave Macmillan

Irish Drama, Modernity and the Passion Play

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Alexandra Poulain

    1. Université of Paris 3-Sorbonne nouvelle, Paris, France

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  • Offers an innovative new approach to understanding the evolution of Irish theatre over the twentieth century
  • Represents the first dedicated examination of the Passion play as a distinct genre
  • Analyses plays from a range of playwrights, from the canonical to the relatively obscure for a comprehensive exploration of this specialised theatrical form

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. Introduction

    • Alexandra Poulain
    Pages 1-11

  3. Synge, Irish Modernity and the Passion Play

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13
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    2. “Unseen Forms of Violence”: J. M. Synge and the Playboy of the Modern World

      • Alexandra Poulain
      Pages 15-30

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 241-264
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Keywords

About this book

This book discusses Irish Passion plays (plays that rewrite or parody the story of the Passion of Christ) in modern Irish drama from the Irish Literary Revival to the present day. It offers innovative readings of such canonical plays as J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, W. B. Yeats’s Calvary, Brendan Behan’s The Hostage, Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, Brian Friel’s Faith Healer and Tom Murphy’s Bailegangaire, as well as of less well-known plays by Padraic Pearse, Lady Gregory, G. B. Shaw, Seán O’Casey, Denis Johnston, Samuel Beckett and David Lloyd. Challenging revisionist readings of the rhetoric of “blood sacrifice” and martyrdom in the Irish Republican tradition, it argues that the Passion play is a powerful political genre which centres on the staged death of the (usually male) protagonist, and makes visible the usually invisible violence perpetrated both by colonial power and by the postcolonial state in the name ofmodernity.

Reviews

“Alexandra Poulain has discovered a riveting new theme which runs through twentieth century Irish drama, that of the Passion play or crucifixion of Jesus Christ, often presented ironically or parodically. By investigating the spectacle of the sacrificed male body from Synge to Friel, Kilroy and beyond, which makes visceral and visible modes of violence perpetrated by hegemonic ideologies and practices of state or colonial powers, she produces exhilarating new insights into both canonical and less familiar plays. A delight to read, this book opens up new territory in Irish theatre studies and contributes to wider debates in theatre on the gaze of the spectator and the body in performance.” (Anna McMullan, Professor of Theatre, University of Reading, UK)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Université of Paris 3-Sorbonne nouvelle, Paris, France

    Alexandra Poulain

About the author

Alexandra Poulain is Professor of Irish Studies at Paris 3-Sorbonne nouvelle, France. She has written extensively on modern and contemporary Irish drama, in particular Yeats, Beckett and Tom Murphy. 

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