This book offers 15 essays (or, to be exact, 12 essays, a
bibliography, an interview and some production notes) on the
relationship between Greek tragedy and Irish writing. Two chapters
by the editors survey the broader history; the later essays tackle
specific plays. This book has much to say on what is perhaps a
surprising aspect of Irish writing. We may not generally think of
the Irish as classicists, but, as Declan Kiberd points out in his
introduction, Irish writers have been drawing on the ancient world
for inspiration for quite some time. From the Irish bards who first
translated the Aeneid in the 12th century to Synge and Joyce, Yeats
and Oscar Wilde and modern writers such as Tom Paulin and Seamus
Heaney, the Irish found in Greek writing a source of subversive
knowledge both recognized by and prone to undermine their British
rulers - and a literary tradition which shared their own beliefs in
the importance of a social and political role for theatre.
Furthermore, this is an excellent introduction to Greek tragedy
more generally. The various essays manage to survey all of the 35
or so extant plays; specific essays examine Phaedra, Antigone in
Africa, Seamus Heaney on the Oresteia, Medea and attitudes to women
in the plays. Also of interest are two chapters written by Tom
Paulin and Seamus Heaney. These high-profile contributors are both
translators of Greek tragedy - Tom Paulin's The Riot Act is a
translation of Antigone, whilst Seamus Heaney wrote a translation
of Philoctetes entitled The Cure at Troy. Alas, their discussions
are a little brief - Heaney merely reproduces a letter he wrote to
an American production giving advice on staging The Cure at Troy -
but they do offer the pleasure of looking over the shoulder of
practising writers. This is not a book without biases. The strong
Irish nationalism perhaps breeds a lack of balance in several
contributors' readings of Antigone (Creon, representative of the
state, receives short shrift). Furthermore, the Romans take up a
rather undeserved place as whipping boys and adversaries, along
with their would-be descendants, the imperialist British. Still,
this book is more often informative than preachy; and it is hard to
think of any reading matter more appropriate for students studying
tragedy. (Kirkus UK)
New essays on ancient Greek classics from Ireland's greatest living
dramatists and academics That so many Irish playwrights should
return to the Greek classics can not really be a surprise. Drama in
Ireland is still a means of exploring the issues of family and
state; of gender, class and race; of the oppressors and the
oppressed. It is political in the broad sense in which the Greeks
understood the word, involving everyone - immediate but
concentrated through parallel and parable. This collection of
provocative essays reveals how some of the great Irish poets and
dramatists, of the past and present, have drawn on Greek myths and
used these stories, which have travelled across three thousand
years, to bring new insights on the world in which we now live.
Including essays from, amongst others, Athol Fugard, Seamus Heaney
and Tom Paulin Amid Our Troubles looks at the work of such writers
as Marina Carr, Brian Friel, Brendan Kennelly, Frank McGuinness and
W. B. Yeats.
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