Description
This book explores the way women, specifically women perceived or presented as Irish, were represented on the Dublin stage by playwrights and actors from the 1820s to the 1920s. Yet, rather than being a feminist reading of modern Irish theatre, this book presents a nationalist and socialist reading of the theatre in its cultural and historical contexts. Arguably, the developmental process that Ireland and its theatre experienced from the eve of Catholic Emancipation to the radical idealism of the 1916 Easter Rising was one of national and social advancement. The radical agitators near the end of this period, including those in the theatre, sought self-determination for Ireland and, more importantly, self-determination for all of the Irish regardless of gender, class, or religion. This books argument is that as the stage image of the Irish woman modernized from the early nineteenth century into the twentieth, it mirrored the modernization of Ireland.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.