The Cambridge Companion to J. M. Synge

by Edited by P. J. Mathews

• ISBN13: 9780521125161
• ISBN10: 0521125162
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

John Millington Synge was a leading literary figure of the Irish Revival who played a significant role in the founding of Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1904. This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to the whole range of Synge's work from well-known plays like Riders to the Sea, The Well of the Saints and The Playboy of the Western World, to his influential prose work The Aran Islands. The essays provide detailed and insightful analyses of individual texts, as well as perceptive reflections on his engagements with the Irish language, processes of decolonisation, gender, modernism and European culture. Critical accounts of landmark productions in Ireland and America are also included. With a guide to further reading and a chronology, this book will introduce students of drama, postcolonial studies, and Irish studies as well as theatregoers to one of the most influential and controversial dramatists of the twentieth century.

Author Biography

John Millington Synge was a leading literary figure of the Irish Revival, who played a significant role in the founding of Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1904. This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to the whole range of Synge's work. The essays provide detailed and insightful analyses of individual texts, as well as perceptive reflections on his engagements with the Irish language, processes of decolonisation, gender, modernism and European culture. This book will introduce students of drama, postcolonial studies and Irish Studies, as well as theatergoers, to one of the most influential and controversial dramatists of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. x
List of abbreviations and short titles	p. xi
Chronology	p. xii
The Synge texts	p. 1
Re-thinking Synge	p. 3
The Shadow of the Glen and Riders to the Sea	p. 15
The Playboy of the Western World	p. 28
The Well of the Saints and The Tinker's Wedding	p. 41
The Aran Islands and the travel essays	p. 52
Deirdre of the Sorrows	p. 64
Theorising Synge	p. 75
J.M. Synge: European encounters	p. 77
Synge and the Irish language	p. 92
Synge and gender	p. 104
Postcolonial Synge	p. 117
Synge and Irish modernism	p. 132
Synge on stage	p. 147
Synge in performance	p. 149
J.M. Synge in America	p. 162
Synge and contemporary Irish drama	p. 173
Select bibliography	p. 185
Index	p. 191
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