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Reprogramming Historiographic Foregrounding: UnIrish Themes in the Development of Canadian Drama
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Reprogramming Historiographic Foregrounding: UnIrish Themes in the Early Development of Canadian National Drama - Grzegorz Koneczniak
In common historiographical accounts of Canadian drama and theatre, the development of the Abbey Theatre in Ireland is frequently quoted as one of major inspirations in the process of creating the national drama and theatre there. The cultural impact of the plays staged at the Abbey at the beginning of the twentieth century and providing Irish theatre goers with onstage visions and renditions of their history, community and rural life was thought to have been applicable in Canada. And perhaps too quickly such developments in both cultural realms would later be interpreted in terms of opposition against colonial discourse and manifestation of what would be later called postcolonial counter-discourse, as commonly found in various texts, for example in Anna Cisło’s book on Irish identity in the Irish Literary Revivalists’ prose writings (2003) and in Grzegorz Koneczniak’s study of decolonisation (2011) and the significance of female characters in this process examined in the Revivalists’ plays. And these foreign contributions are only echoes of the domestic postcolonial critical thought already present in Ireland. Theatrical contacts between Ireland and Canada developed mostly as an outcome of artists’ migratory movements to the latter and the somehow natural need for adaptation. Even if the whole project of adapting the Irish Literary Revival and its dramatic contributions is regarded in criticism as impossible, at some point in the historical development of drama in Canada there appeared Irish-Canadian plays whose ‘Irishness’ is still welcome in readings and interpretations. The aim of this presentation, in accordance with the theme of the conference, is to ‘re-programme’ such hermeneutic practices and to discover new ‘UnIrish’ senses in such dramatic works, quite distant from this Irish-Canadian postcolonial hyphenism.
In common historiographical accounts of Canadian drama and theatre, the development of the Abbey Theatre in Ireland is frequently quoted as one of major inspirations in the process of creating the national drama and theatre there. The cultural impact of the plays staged at the Abbey at the beginning of the twentieth century and providing Irish theatre goers with onstage visions and renditions of their history, community and rural life was thought to have been applicable in Canada. And perhaps too quickly such developments in both cultural realms would later be interpreted in terms of opposition against colonial discourse and manifestation of what would be later called postcolonial counter-discourse, as commonly found in various texts, for example in Anna Cisło’s book on Irish identity in the Irish Literary Revivalists’ prose writings (2003) and in Grzegorz Koneczniak’s study of decolonisation (2011) and the significance of female characters in this process examined in the Revivalists’ plays. And these foreign contributions are only echoes of the domestic postcolonial critical thought already present in Ireland. Theatrical contacts between Ireland and Canada developed mostly as an outcome of artists’ migratory movements to the latter and the somehow natural need for adaptation. Even if the whole project of adapting the Irish Literary Revival and its dramatic contributions is regarded in criticism as impossible, at some point in the historical development of drama in Canada there appeared Irish-Canadian plays whose ‘Irishness’ is still welcome in readings and interpretations. The aim of this presentation, in accordance with the theme of the conference, is to ‘re-programme’ such hermeneutic practices and to discover new ‘UnIrish’ senses in such dramatic works, quite distant from this Irish-Canadian postcolonial hyphenism.