In their Own (W)right Lady Augusta Gregory and Frances Brown: A series of multimodal feminist theatre practices for the recovery and re-presentation of Irish women writers

This thesis compares the legacies of writers Lady Augusta Gregory (1852-1932), and Frances Brown (“The blind poetess of Ulster” 1816-1879). The intersection of their professional experiences, reception, and representation, resistant strategies, and subsequent marginalisation, substantiates the case for multi-modal practice as research based interventions. In order to rehabilitate and reactivate their literary and theatrical legacies in both scholarly and public domains, I trial feminist drama and theatre methodologies to rehabilitate the artistic legacies of marginalised women writers and (re)introduce them to the cultural memory and to new publics. This thesis contends that intentionally feminist theatre practices offer unique and powerful methodologies which can mitigate against the marginalising factors of the canon, institutionalised sexism, gender -biased scholarship and discriminatory theatre programming. My chief methodology is practice as research (PaR), involving playwriting as research, performance, adaptation and Drama in Education, which challenge received narratives of Gregory and Brown’s achievements. In Chapters One and Two I introduce both writers, my research question and frameworks, as well as the Frances Browne Literary Festival as a site for feminist intervention. In Chapter Three, through my dramatisation of Brown’s The Legends of Ulster, I interrogate the use of dialect, as historical and contemporary subversive feminist and counter-canonical tools. In Chapter Four my play In My Mind’s Eye demonstrates how biographical playwriting can combine naturalism and non-naturalism effectively as a feminist tool, and problematise ableist approaches in drama. Chapter Five establishes the potential of both intertextuality and narratology in playwriting in the recovery and re-presentation of women writers and their work. My elaboration of Drama in Education techniques with primary school children on Lady Gregory’s The Golden Apple emerge in Chapter Six as a feminist research methodology, reconnecting children with their theatrical heritage, and conscientising them to gender imbalance in the theatre. By creating affective responses in audiences, stimulating debate, creating awareness and ultimately effecting some degree of conscientisation; social, political and cultural change become possible. Future recommendations include the application of these feminist techniques to other marginalised writers and their non-canonical works, ground-up activism e.g. the literary festival as a site of feminist intervention, and the implementation of Drama in Education strategies at second and third level.

Funder

Irish Research Council

Publisher

University of Galway

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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Collections

University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)