A haunted state: Queerness, spectrality and performance in Ireland

This PhD explores the intricate intersections of queerness, spectrality, and performance within an Irish context. The work argues that queer perspectives and histories have been historically excluded and rendered largely marginal and invisible within a broader understanding of Irishness. To address this, the thesis employs a framework of spectrality through a mixed methodologies approach, using historiography, practice research, ethnography and performance analysis to create new avenues for these occluded queer pasts to re-emerge, be reconsidered, and re-narrativized. Central to this research is the assertion that theatre and performance serve as vital temporal and spatial sites where these queer spectres can be encountered, facilitating a crucial transference of information from the past into the performative present. This performance encounter generates a thickening of time, which allows the intangible spectres of the past to be staged and acknowledged. The project is structured around key theoretical frameworks including Derrida's hauntology, concepts of queer temporality (drawing on scholars like Muñoz, Freeman, Edelman, Halberstam, Love, and Pryor), Performance as Research (PAR), and erotohistoriography (as articulated by Freeman and Campbell). These frameworks enable a "messy" but productive methodological approach to queer historical inquiry. Through a series of case studies, including a review of queer performance in Ireland since the 1960s, a performance-as-research investigation into the cultural memory of Edward Martyn (1859-1923), an examination of queer Irish migrants in New York City, and an analysis of work by THISISPOPBABY, the thesis demonstrates the degree to which the present is possessed by these histories. Ultimately, the research proposes that engaging with the performance of queer pasts creates reparative dramaturgies, fostering a hospitable memory and an ethical imperative to acknowledge the demands of these spectres, thereby shaping more inclusive and just Irish futures.

Funder

Research Ireland

Publisher

University of Galway

Rights

CC BY-NC-ND

cbn

Collections

University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)