Women and Embodied Mythmaking in Irish Theatre

Explores how women in Irish theatre in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have employed mythic narratives to expose the gap between women's material lives and idealised myths of femininity. This book will speak to students and academics with an interest in theatre, Irish studies and gender studies.

The rich legacy of women''s contributions to Irish theatre is traditionally viewed through a male-dominated literary canon and mythmaking, thus arguably silencing their work. In this timely book, Shonagh Hill proposes a feminist genealogy which brings new perspectives to women''s mythmaking across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The performances considered include the tableaux vivants performed by the Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland), plays written by Alice Milligan, Maud Gonne, Lady Augusta Gregory, Eva Gore-Booth, Mary Devenport O''Neill, Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy, Paula Meehan, Edna O''Brien and Marina Carr, as well as plays translated, adapted and performed by Olwen Fouéré. The theatrical work discussed resists the occlusion of women''s cultural engagement that results from confinement to idealised myths of femininity. This is realised through embodied mythmaking: a process which exposes how bodies bear the consequences of these myths, while refusing to accept the female body as passive bearer of inscription through the assertion of a creative female corporeality.