This book locates the theatre of Marina Carr within a female genealogy that revises the patriarchal origins of modern Irish drama. The creative vision of Lady Augusta Gregory underpins the analysis of Carr's dramatic vision throughout the volume in order to re-situate the woman artist as central to Irish theatre. For Carr, 'writing is more about the things you cannot understand than the things you can', and her evocation of 'pastures of the unknown' forms the thematic through-line of this work. Lady Gregory's plays offer an intuitive lineage with Carr which can be identified in their use of language, myth, landscape, women, the transformative power of storytelling and infinite energies of nature and the Otherworld. This book reconnects the severed bridge between Carr and Gregory in order to acknowledge a foundational status for all women in Irish theatre. 1. Towards a Matriarchal Lineage.- 2. Seeking a Landscape: Early Pastures.- 3. Lakes of the Night:
The Mai.- 4. Topographies of the Mind:
Portia Coughlan.- 5. Writ in the Sky:
By the Bog of Cats....- 6. The Haunted Kitchen:
On Raftery's Hill.- 7. Psychic Terrains:
Ariel and
Woman and Scarecrow.- 8. Playing the Field:
The Cordelia Dream and
Meat and Salt.- 9. Landscapes of the Mind's Eye:
The Giant Blue Hand and
Marble.- 10. The Nature of Playwriting:
Sixteen Possible Glimpses,
Phaedra Backwards and
Hecuba.- 11.Beyond the Gauze.
Melissa Sihra is Head of Drama at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Assistant Professor of Drama. She is editor of
Women in Irish Drama: A Century of Authorship and Representation and was President of the Irish Society for Theatre Research from 2011-15. She is a Dramaturg and regular speaker at the Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering at Coole Park. "An erudite, thought-provoking and startling fresh academic study which situates Marina Carr's plays in relation to the patriarchal lineage of Irish modern drama. ... Overall this book offers valuable critical study on Carr and - accurately - locates her within the female genealogy of modern Irish drama." (Mia Colleran, The Irish Times, August 24, 2019)
"Marina Carr: Pastures of the Unknown is a well-argued and thought-provoking addition to the small but growing corpus of critical studies on the theatre of Marina Carr." (Adrienne Leavy, Reading Ireland, Issue 10, 2019)
