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Palgrave Macmillan

Marina Carr

Pastures of the Unknown

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Melissa Sihra

    1. School of Drama, Film and Music, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

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  • Offers an in-depth critical analysis of the theatre of Marina Carr from 1988 to the present

  • Incorporates archival manuscript sources from the ‘Marina Carr Collection’ at the National Library of Ireland

  • Includes the author's personal interviews with the playwright

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
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  2. Introduction: Towards a Matriarchal Lineage

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 1-38

  3. Seeking a Landscape: Early Pastures

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 39-72

  4. Lakes of the Night: The Mai

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 73-91

  5. Topographies of the Mind: Portia Coughlan

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 93-115

  6. Writ in the Sky: By the Bog of Cats…

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 117-147

  7. The Haunted Kitchen: On Raftery’s Hill

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 149-176

  8. Psychic Terrains: Ariel and Woman and Scarecrow

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 177-204

  9. Playing the Field: The Cordelia Dream and Meat and Salt

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 205-222

  10. Landscapes of the Mind’s Eye: The Giant Blue Hand and Marble

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 223-248

  11. The Nature of Playwriting: Sixteen Possible Glimpses, Phaedra Backwards and Hecuba

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 249-276

  12. Conclusion: Through the Gauze

    • Melissa Sihra
    Pages 277-291

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 293-303
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Keywords

About this book

This book locates the theatre of Marina Carr within a female genealogy that revises the patriarchal origins of modern Irish drama. The creative vision of Lady Augusta Gregory underpins the analysis of Carr’s dramatic vision throughout the volume in order to re-situate the woman artist as central to Irish theatre. For Carr, ‘writing is more about the things you cannot understand than the things you can’, and her evocation of ‘pastures of the unknown’ forms the thematic through-line of this work. Lady Gregory’s plays offer an intuitive lineage with Carr which can be identified in their use of language, myth, landscape, women, the transformative power of storytelling and infinite energies of nature and the Otherworld. This book reconnects the severed bridge between Carr and Gregory in order to acknowledge a foundational status for all women in Irish theatre.

Reviews

“An erudite, thought-provoking and startling fresh academic study which situates Marina Carr’s plays in relation to the patriarchal lineage of Irish modern drama. … Overall this book offers valuable critical study on Carr and – accurately – locates her within the female genealogy of modern Irish drama.” (Mia Colleran, The Irish Times, August 24, 2019)

“Marina Carr: Pastures of the Unknown is a well-argued and thought-provoking addition to the small but growing corpus of critical studies on the theatre of Marina Carr.” (Adrienne Leavy, Reading Ireland, Issue 10, 2019)


Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Drama, Film and Music, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Melissa Sihra

About the author

Melissa Sihra is Head of Drama at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Assistant Professor of Drama. She is editor of Women in Irish Drama: A Century of Authorship and Representation and was President of the Irish Society for Theatre Research from 2011-15. She is a Dramaturg and regular speaker at the Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering at Coole Park.

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