Examining a collection of Irish plays, this book highlights how specific theatrical productions reflect the global factors at work in modern Ireland. Also, it seeks to document how Irish dramatists exert an impact on theatre practitioners from non-English speaking countries and enrich their stage aesthetics.
This scholarly study of the formation of the Irish literary canon in the first half of the twentieth century provides fascinating and often surprising insights into the ways in which different educational institutions responded to the political and historical changes taking place as Ireland moved from colonial to postcolonial status. Dr Wei H. Kao discusses not only what was included on school and university curriculum but also writers who were excluded, in particular women writers who appeared to interrogate a male nationalist agenda for the representation of Ireland. – Emeritus Professor C. L. Innes The writers discussed include Daniel Corkery, J. G. Farrell, Denis Johnston, Mary Lavin, Iris Murdoch, Kate O’Brien, Frank O’Connor, Liam O’Flaherty, and James Plunkett.