This paper argues that J.M. Synge’s [1] The Shadow of the Glen can be used to sharpen our understanding of the relationships between regionalism, universality and the authentic in dramatic literature. My suggestion is that the key component in that tension is Synge’s presentation of what was to be considered authentic, since literature in Ireland was real exercise in fostering national consciousness. I argue that Synge’s representation of the regional drifts from issues of “authenticity” not because it is not a factual account of real events, but because it is not so heavily and so self-consciously authenticated. As shall be argued below, The Shadow of the Glen is concerned with the local, presented with a universal interest. Synge universalizes the characters’ experiences as he revisits the golden past of the Gaelic culture. This is not to suggest that the playwright was not authentic, but instead that his play shows the author’s self-awareness about how literary constructions of the authentic function. He understood that the representation of the regional to a metropolitan audience will always require a negotiation of the relationship between reality and audience’s expectation. Synge managed that tension not by asserting the authenticity of his narrative but by insisting on the authenticity of his own outlook as an artist. This self-consciousness in the presentation and reconstruction of the clash between the regional and the global is an example of how we can think of Synge as a modernist writer.
| Published in | English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 4) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12 |
| Page(s) | 132-138 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Authenticity, Universality, Local Colour, Irish Peasantry, Irish Myths, Revivalist
| [1] | Synge, J. M. Collected Works II: Prose. Ed. Alan Price, Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1982. |
| [2] | Richards, Shaun. Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth Century Irish Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. |
| [3] | Nozen Seyedeh Zahra Amin. A Critical Study of the Contribution of Abbey Theatre to the Promotion of Irish Literature: With Reference to the Selected Works of William Butler Yeats, John Millington Synge and George Bernard Shaw. QUID. Vol. 1, 2017. Price, Alan. Ed. Synge and Anglo-Irish Drama. London: Macmillan, 2014. |
| [4] | Guignon, Charles. On Being Authentic. London: Routledge, 2004. |
| [5] | Kiberd, Declan. “Synge and the Irish Language.” The Cambridge Companion to Synge, Ed. J. P. Mathews. Cambridge University Press, 2009. 333-339. |
| [6] | Yaets, W. B. “J. M. Synge and the Ireland of his Time”. Essays and Introductions. New York, Macmillan, 1961. 12-15. |
| [7] | Ashcroft, B., Gareth G. & Helen T. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge, 2005. |
| [8] | Montrose, Louise. “The Poetics and Politics of Cultures.” New Historicism. Ed. Aram Veeser. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. 67-70. |
| [9] | Wiedenmann, S. Heinrich Heine: Dreams in a Winter Tale, A New Historicist Approach. Munich: Grin Verlag, 2007. |
| [10] | Rayburn, Geoffrey. This is Whose Story? A Re-evaluation of John Millington Synge’s Primitivism in The Aran Islands. New York: Syracuse, 2010. |
| [11] | Collins, Christopher. Synge and Protestant Comedy: For the Sake of Sanity: Doing Things with Humor in Irish Performance. Cary for Press: Dublin, 2014. |
| [12] | Fogarty, Anne. “Ghostly Intertexts: James Joyce and the Legacy of Synge.” Synge and Edwardian Ireland. Eds. Brian Cliff and Nicholas Grene, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 225-244. |
| [13] | Kumar, Sushil. “The Theme of The Shadow of the Glen”. International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, Volume 4, No. 4, 2016. 45-54. |
| [14] | Eilis, Ni Dhuibhne “The Best Field Worker: John Millington Synge and Irish Folklore.” Synge and His Influences. Ed. Patrick Lonergan, Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2011. 93-110. |
| [15] | Mathews, J. P. “Re-thinking Synge” The Cambridge Companion to Synge. Ed. J. P. Mathews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 1-6. |
| [16] | Ghafourinia, Fatemeh, Leila Baradaran. “The Women’s Right in Henrik Ibsen’s Doll’s House” Journal of Novel Applied Sciences. Vol. 3 No. 4 2014 76-77. |
| [17] | Burk, Mary. The Riot of Spring: Synge’s ‘Failed Realism’ and the Peasant Drama. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. |
| [18] | Kitishat, Amal Riyadh. “Colonialism and the Recreation of Identity: The Irish Theatre as a Case Study.” Journal of Language and Culture. Vol. 3, No. 5, 2012. 83-86. |
| [19] | Al – Ghoreibi, Fathi. “The Troubled Irish Mother Figure in J. M. Synge’s Riders to the Sea and Tom Murphy’s Bailegangaire.” Umm Al -Quora University Journal of Languages and Literature, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2015. 1-13. |
APA Style
Didachos Mbeng Afuh. (2020). Staging the Authentic and the Theatre of Universality in J.M. Synge’s The Shadow of the Glen. English Language, Literature & Culture, 5(4), 132-138. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12
ACS Style
Didachos Mbeng Afuh. Staging the Authentic and the Theatre of Universality in J.M. Synge’s The Shadow of the Glen. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(4), 132-138. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12
AMA Style
Didachos Mbeng Afuh. Staging the Authentic and the Theatre of Universality in J.M. Synge’s The Shadow of the Glen. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(4):132-138. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12,
author = {Didachos Mbeng Afuh},
title = {Staging the Authentic and the Theatre of Universality in J.M. Synge’s The Shadow of the Glen},
journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
volume = {5},
number = {4},
pages = {132-138},
doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20200504.12},
abstract = {This paper argues that J.M. Synge’s [1] The Shadow of the Glen can be used to sharpen our understanding of the relationships between regionalism, universality and the authentic in dramatic literature. My suggestion is that the key component in that tension is Synge’s presentation of what was to be considered authentic, since literature in Ireland was real exercise in fostering national consciousness. I argue that Synge’s representation of the regional drifts from issues of “authenticity” not because it is not a factual account of real events, but because it is not so heavily and so self-consciously authenticated. As shall be argued below, The Shadow of the Glen is concerned with the local, presented with a universal interest. Synge universalizes the characters’ experiences as he revisits the golden past of the Gaelic culture. This is not to suggest that the playwright was not authentic, but instead that his play shows the author’s self-awareness about how literary constructions of the authentic function. He understood that the representation of the regional to a metropolitan audience will always require a negotiation of the relationship between reality and audience’s expectation. Synge managed that tension not by asserting the authenticity of his narrative but by insisting on the authenticity of his own outlook as an artist. This self-consciousness in the presentation and reconstruction of the clash between the regional and the global is an example of how we can think of Synge as a modernist writer.},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Staging the Authentic and the Theatre of Universality in J.M. Synge’s The Shadow of the Glen AU - Didachos Mbeng Afuh Y1 - 2020/12/08 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12 DO - 10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12 T2 - English Language, Literature & Culture JF - English Language, Literature & Culture JO - English Language, Literature & Culture SP - 132 EP - 138 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-2413 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.12 AB - This paper argues that J.M. Synge’s [1] The Shadow of the Glen can be used to sharpen our understanding of the relationships between regionalism, universality and the authentic in dramatic literature. My suggestion is that the key component in that tension is Synge’s presentation of what was to be considered authentic, since literature in Ireland was real exercise in fostering national consciousness. I argue that Synge’s representation of the regional drifts from issues of “authenticity” not because it is not a factual account of real events, but because it is not so heavily and so self-consciously authenticated. As shall be argued below, The Shadow of the Glen is concerned with the local, presented with a universal interest. Synge universalizes the characters’ experiences as he revisits the golden past of the Gaelic culture. This is not to suggest that the playwright was not authentic, but instead that his play shows the author’s self-awareness about how literary constructions of the authentic function. He understood that the representation of the regional to a metropolitan audience will always require a negotiation of the relationship between reality and audience’s expectation. Synge managed that tension not by asserting the authenticity of his narrative but by insisting on the authenticity of his own outlook as an artist. This self-consciousness in the presentation and reconstruction of the clash between the regional and the global is an example of how we can think of Synge as a modernist writer. VL - 5 IS - 4 ER -
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