Ireland, Memory and Performing the Historical Imagination

259 Pages·2014·1.25 MB·English

by  Christopher Collins, Mary P. Caulfield

Ireland, Memory and
Performing the Historical
Imagination
Edited by
Christopher Collins and
Mary P. Caulfield
Ireland, Memory and Performing
the Historical Imagination
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Ireland, Memory and
Performing the Historical
Imagination
Edited by
Christopher Collins
and
Mary P. Caulfield
Introduction, selection and editorial matter © Christopher Collins &
Mary P. Caulfield 2014
Individual chapters © Contributors 2014
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6 –1 0 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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ISBN 978–1–137–36217–9
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ireland, memory and performing the historical imagination / [editors]
Christopher Collins, Mary P. Caulfield.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–1–137–36217–9
1. English drama—Irish authors—History and criticism. 2. Collective memory
in literature. 3. History in literature. 4. Ireland—In literature. 5. Literature
and history—Ireland. 6. Theater and society—Ireland. I. Collins,
Christopher, 1984– editor. II. Caulfield, Mary P., 1978– editor.
PR8795.C55I84 2014
822'.0099415—dc23 2014025314
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
For Matthew DiBlasi and Shane O’Reilly
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements x
Notes on Contributors xii
Introduction: the Rest is History 1
Christopher Collins and Mary P. Caulfield
Part I Legacy and Heritage
1 Walking In and Out of Place: the Pedestrian Performances
of Tim Robinson 19
Daniel Sack
2 A Theatre of the Unword: Censorship, Hegemony
and Samuel Beckett 36
Nicholas Johnson
3 Re- considering Oscar Wilde’s Flamboyant Flop:
Vera or The Nihilists 55
Aideen Kerr
4 Courtly Love and Heroic Death in W. B. Yeats’s
Cuchulain Cycle of Plays 69
Paul Murphy
5 ‘… Whenever the Tale of ’98 is Told’: Constance Markievicz,
the National Memory and ‘The Women of N inety-Eight’ 87
Mary P. Caulfield
6 Theatre of Dissent: the Historical Imagination of the Irish
Workers’ Dramatic Company 101
Lauren Arrington
7 Staging the Body in P ost- Independence Ireland 118
Lionel Pilkington
Part II Recollection and Remembrance
8 Pampooties and Keening: Alternate Ways of Performing
Memory in J. M. Synge’s Plays 139
Hélène Lecossois
vii
viii Contents
9 ‘Why Do You Always Be Singin’ That Oul’ Song?’:
the Subversion of Emigrant Ballads in John B. Keane’s
Many Young Men of Twenty 155
Joseph Greenwood
10 Boxed Rituals: Eamon de Valera, Television and Talbot’s Box 171
Michael Jaros
11 Unblessed Amongst Women: Performing Patriarchy
Without Men in Contemporary Irish Theatre 190
Cormac O’Brien
12 The Abuse of History/A History of Abuse: Theatre as
Memory and the Abbey’s ‘Darkest Corner’ 207
Emilie Pine
13 Forgetting Follow 223
Christopher Collins
Index 239
List of Illustrations
7.1 Photograph of Ria Mooney and Sean O’Casey 118
8.1 Jane W. Shackleton, ‘At Dun Aengus, Inis Mór,
County Galway’, c. 1899, Album 17/60/1 146
10.1 The Talbot Memorial Bridge with Ulster Bank complex
in background 184
10.2 O’Connell St monument to Jim Larkin with
Millennium Spire in background 185
ix