Women and embodied mythmaking in Irish theatre / Shonagh Hill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hill, Shonagh, 1977- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--Irish authors--History and criticism.

English drama.

English drama--Irish authors.

English drama--Women authors--History and criticism.

English drama--Women authors.

Women in the theater--Ireland--History--20th century.

Women in the theater.

Theater--Political aspects--Ireland--History--20th century.

Theater.

Feminism and theater--Ireland--History--20th century.

Feminism and theater.

Women in literature.

Myth in literature.

Human body in literature.

Theater--Political aspects.

History.

Ireland.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 257 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : New York : Cambridge University Press, [2019]

Summary:

The rich legacy of women's contributions to Irish theatre is traditionally viewed through a male-dominated literary canon and mythmaking, thus arguably silencing their work. In this timely book, Shonagh Hill proposes a feminist genealogy which brings new perspectives to women's mythmaking across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The performances considered include the tableaux vivants performed by the Inghinidhe na hEireann (Daughters of Ireland), plays written by Alice Milligan, Maud Gonne, Lady Augusta Gregory, Eva Gore-Booth, Mary Devenport O'Neill, Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy, Paula Meehan, Edna O'Brien and Marina Carr, as well as plays translated, adapted and performed by Olwen Fouere. The theatrical work discussed resists the occlusion of women's cultural engagement that results from confinement to idealised myths of femininity. This is realised through embodied mythmaking: a process which exposes how bodies bear the consequences of these myths, while refusing to accept the female body as passive bearer of inscription through the assertion of a creative female corporeality.

Contents:

Introduction: a creative female corporeality

Revolutionary bodies: mythmaking and Irish feminisms

Unhomely bodies: transforming space

Process and resistance: metamorphic 'bodies that matter'

Staging female death: sacrificial and dying bodies

Haunted bodies and violent pasts

Olwen Fouere's corpus: the performer's body and her body of work.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781108485333

1108485332

OCLC:

1088335708