- Irish Studies, Drama, Anglo-Irish Drama, Modernism (Literature), Irish Modernism, British Modernism, and 11 moreModern Drama, Abbey Theatre, Detective Fiction, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Wallace Shawn, Working Classes, Irish Literature, Samuel Beckett (Literature), Home Rule Politics, and Samuel R Delanyedit
- Beth is a graduate of Rutgers University (BA and MA) and Trinity College Dublin (MPhil and PhD).edit
This explores Abbey plays set in Irish cities, from its founding through the summer of 1951. It seeks to broaden the discourse on modern Anglo-Irish drama generally, and at the Abbey Theatre specifically. It shows that although the urban... more
This explores Abbey plays set in Irish cities, from its founding through the summer of 1951. It seeks to broaden the discourse on modern Anglo-Irish drama generally, and at the Abbey Theatre specifically. It shows that although the urban repertoire was in the minority, it was the financial backbone of the Abbey in its early decades and often led to significant shifts in its operating policies.
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It has become a cliché to begin any consideration about Wallace Shawn’s writing career with the claim that he is the most famous unknown American playwright. This assertion has worn out any usefulness it once served. He is certainly more... more
It has become a cliché to begin any consideration about Wallace Shawn’s writing career with the claim that he is the most famous unknown American playwright. This assertion has worn out any usefulness it once served. He is certainly more familiar because of his acting career, but his plays are known. They have been staged throughout the world and adapted to cinema; won prestige awards and been condemned in the House of Lords. But there is no denying that the Shawn canon—Our Late Night (1975), A Thought in Three Parts (1977), Marie and Bruce (1979), The Hotel Play (1971), Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985), The Fever (1990), The Designated Mourner (1997), Grasses of a Thousand Colors (2008), and Evening at the Talk House (2015)—occupies a liminal space in American drama. This book addresses that liminality. It examines the language and form of Shawn's theatre and considers critical and popular reception over time.
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With chapters on Freeman Wills Crofts (by Shane Mawe), Bartholomew Gill (Mannion), Julie Parsons (Bridget English), Irish language crime fiction (Caitlin Nic Iomhair), Conor Brady (Nancy Marck Cantwell), Michael Russell (Eunan O'Halpin),... more
With chapters on Freeman Wills Crofts (by Shane Mawe), Bartholomew Gill (Mannion), Julie Parsons (Bridget English), Irish language crime fiction (Caitlin Nic Iomhair), Conor Brady (Nancy Marck Cantwell), Michael Russell (Eunan O'Halpin), Alex Barclay (Declan Burke), Arlene Hunt (Joe Long), Steve Cavanagh (Gerard Brennan), Declan Burke (Maureen Reddy), Adrian McKinty (Anjili Babbar), Gene Kerrigan (Richard Howard), Louise Phillips (Rosemary Erickson Johnson), Claire McGowan (Vivian Valvano Lynch), Sinead Crowley (Fiona Coleman Coffey), and Liz Nugent (Brian Cliff).
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This edited collection includes an introduction tracing the evolution of Irishness in detective fiction (by Elizabeth Mannion) and one chapter on each of the following detective series: Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma (Nancy Marck... more
This edited collection includes an introduction tracing the evolution of Irishness in detective fiction (by Elizabeth Mannion) and one chapter on each of the following detective series: Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma (Nancy Marck Cantwell), John Connolly's Charlie Parker (Brian Cliff), Declan Hughes's Ed Loy (Charlotte J. Headrick), Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor (Andrew Kincaid), Brian McGilloway's Inspector Devlin (Carol Baraniuk), Stuart Neville's Jack Lennon (Fiona Coleman Coffey), Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad (Shirley Peterson), Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan (Mannion), and Benjamin Black's Quirke (Audrey McNamara).
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Decades before Irish crime fiction emerged on international Best Seller lists, the North American journalist Mark McGarrity staked a claim as the first author of a contemporary Irish detective series. From the late 1970s until his death... more
Decades before Irish crime fiction emerged on international Best Seller lists, the North American journalist Mark McGarrity staked a claim as the first author of a contemporary Irish detective series. From the late 1970s until his death in 2002, he published sixteen volumes in the Peter McGarr series under the pen name Bartholomew Gill. This chapter explores the McGarr series as a template for the Celtic Tiger police procedurals that emerged in the noughts. It finds that the series mimics the social realism of post-war American detective fiction in a manner that draws parallels to the societal changes in Ireland that accompanied the foundation and early years of the European Union.
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This essay considers the dramaturgical impact of the 1913 Dublin Lockout on Bernard Shaw. Plays covered include: Back to Methuselah, Candida, Getting Married, “In Good King Charles’s Golden Days,” John Bull’s Other Island, Mrs. Warren’s... more
This essay considers the dramaturgical impact of the 1913 Dublin Lockout on Bernard Shaw. Plays covered include: Back to Methuselah, Candida, Getting Married, “In Good King Charles’s Golden Days,” John Bull’s Other Island, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, The Devil’s Disciple and Captain Brassbound’s Conversion. It follows the historical timeline of Shaw’s public debates and friendships with various groups from the Nonconformists to the Church of England, in conjunction with Shaw’s opining on Irish national affairs. The two issues of particular interest are organized labor and Parnell.
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This essay examines Belfast- and Dublin-set realism of the early twentieth century. Considering a mix of literatures--including the pre-Wake fiction of James Joyce, short- and long-fiction of Liam O’Flaherty, and the Dublin Trilogy of... more
This essay examines Belfast- and Dublin-set realism of the early twentieth century. Considering a mix of literatures--including the pre-Wake fiction of James Joyce, short- and long-fiction of Liam O’Flaherty, and the Dublin Trilogy of Sean O’Casey--it reviews the extent to which the working classes were portrayed as economic fodder for and collateral damage in the business of nation building.
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This Introducton to The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel traces Irishness—and its erasure—in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British detective fiction, and considers the paraliterary status of the detective genre within Irish... more
This Introducton to The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel traces Irishness—and its erasure—in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British detective fiction, and considers the paraliterary status of the detective genre within Irish Studies.
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Distinctions of race, class, and gender are central to each volume in Jane Casey’s Maeve Kerrigan series, along with a running commentary on social inequities along these lines. This commentary reveals Maeve's own susceptibility to harm,... more
Distinctions of race, class, and gender are central to each volume in Jane Casey’s Maeve Kerrigan series, along with a running commentary on social inequities along these lines. This commentary reveals Maeve's own susceptibility to harm, unifying her with women citywide, including victims of the crimes she investigates. The series stops short of being polemical, but, with its focus on observation, vulnerability and empathy, it is a cautionary tale of the price paid for living in a surveillant society.
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This is the second installment of ongoing research in biographical dramas staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. I am specifically interested in documenting plays about political and/or politicized figures from Irish history. The Parnell... more
This is the second installment of ongoing research in biographical dramas staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. I am specifically interested in documenting plays about political and/or politicized figures from Irish history. The Parnell plays discussed in this essay include Lady Gregory's The Deliverer (1911), Seumas O’Kelly’s The Parnellite (1917), Lennox Robinson's The Lost Leader (1918), William Robert Fearon’s Parnell of Avondale (1934), and Frank O’Connor and Hugh Hunt’s Moses’ Rock (1938).
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This is the first installment of ongoing research in biographical dramas staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. I am specifically interested in documenting plays about political and/or politicized figures from Irish history. The Swift... more
This is the first installment of ongoing research in biographical dramas staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. I am specifically interested in documenting plays about political and/or politicized figures from Irish history. The Swift plays discussed in this essay are: G. Sidney Paternoster’s The Dean of St Patrick’s (1913), Arthur Power’s The Drapier Letters (1927), W. B. Yeats’s The Words upon the Window-Pane (1930), John O’Donovan’s Dearly Beloved Roger (1967), Eugene McCabe’s Swift (1969), Eamon Morrissey’s Patrick Gulliver (1978) and Mr Gulliver’s Bags (1984), and Tom MacIntyre’s The Bearded Lady (1984).
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This collection documents the work of leading contemporary Irish women theatre makers. Attention is paid to the literary, but set design, movement, direction, technology, and costume are given equal weight. Such generous distribution of... more
This collection documents the work of leading contemporary Irish women theatre makers. Attention is paid to the literary, but set design, movement, direction, technology, and costume are given equal weight. Such generous distribution of analysis is an asset to students and scholars of Irish theatre studies.
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Samuel Beckett's novel Murphy can pose challenges for first-time readers. This short guide, developed in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Mannion, has been provided with the novel to students of my advanced Samuel Beckett seminar in... more
Samuel Beckett's novel Murphy can pose challenges for first-time readers. This short guide, developed in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Mannion, has been provided with the novel to students of my advanced Samuel Beckett seminar in recent years, and has shown some success in opening several of the book's key ideas, underlying structures, and more obscure references. It is being made available here for use by the academic community as a free teaching aid; please do just acknowledge us if you do use it, and let us know if you have found it useful.