The Profane Book of Irish Comedy / David Krause.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Krause, David, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama (Comedy)--History and criticism.

English drama (Comedy).

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

English drama.

Irish Studies.

Ireland--In literature.

Ireland.

Local Subjects:

Irish Studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (352 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A fierce mirth characterizes antic Irish comedy. To the degree to which everyone sympathizes with the need to mock repressive authority, everyone is potentially Irish. It is the Irish dramatists themselves, says David Krause, that are the true authors of the profane book of Irish comedy. The body of literature they have produced desecrates the sacred in Ireland and launches a sardonic attack on the queen of Irish nationalism, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, the old sow who, according to Joyce's tragicomic jest, tries to devour her creative farrow.Krause discusses the major works of fourteen Irish playwrights—Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Dion Boucicault, William Boyle, Paul Vincent Carroll, George Fitzmaurice, Lady Gregory, Denis Johnston, Sean O'Casey, Lennox Robinson, Bernard Shaw, George Shields, J. M. Synge, and W. B. Yeats—and shows the ways in which these works are linked, emotionally and thematically, to early Gaelic literature and the tradition of the mythic pagan playboy Oisin or Usheen.As the last great pagan hero of Ireland, Oisin emerges as an archetype for the many playboys and paycocks of Irish comedy. Oisin was the antithesis of St. Patrick, the first great Christian saint of Ireland, who, condemning pleasure and threatening eternal damnation, came to represent all authority. The bearers of this dark and wild Celtic tradition, which Synge and O'Casey associated with a daimonic or barbarous impulse, laugh irreverently at their own creations. This laughter, the laughter of the culture's mythmakers, brings with it emotional relief, comic catharsis.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Chapter 1. THE BARBAROUS SYMPATHIES OF ANTIC IRISH COMEDY

Chapter 2. THE HIDDEN OISÍN

Chapter 3. THE COMIC DESECRATION OF Ireland's household gods

Chapter 4. MANNERS AND MORALS IN IRISH COMEDY

Chapter 5. THE VICTORY OF COMIC DEFEAT

NOTES AND COMMENTS

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781501744013

1501744011

OCLC:

1129182955