Private Goes Public: Self-Narrativisation in Brian Friel’s Plays

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-3-7720-8534-5
Verlag: Francke

Buch, Englisch, 261 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 225 mm

Reihe: Schweizer Anglistische Arbeiten (SAA)

In Brian Friel's writing, the distinction between public and private is closely linked to the concepts of home, family, identity and truth. This study examines the characters' excessive introspection and their deep-seated need to disclose their most intimate knowledge and private truths to define who they are and, thus, to oppose dominant discourse or avoid heteronomy.
This study begins by investigating how a number of Anglo-Irish writers publicised their characters' private versions of truth thereby illustrating what they perceived to be the space of 'Irishness'. The book then focuses on Friel's techniques of sharing his character's private views to demonstrate how he adopted and adapted these practices in his own oeuvre. As the characters' superficial inarticulateness and their vivid inner selves are repeatedly juxtaposed in Friel's texts, his oeuvre, quintessentially, displays a great unease with the concepts of communication and absolute truth.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Frey, Gaby

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Dramen und Dramatiker
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Irische Literatur

Über Autor(innen)

Gaby Frey lehrte Englische Literatur (Narratologie und Drama) am Englischen Seminar der Universität Zürich und unterrichtet Englisch an einem Schweizer Gymnasium in Winterthur.