Abstract
ABSTRACTJ. M. Synge’s engagement with social modernisation has traditionally been underplayed by scholars, and his one-act ‘peasant’ plays have been seen as typical (though exceptional) examples of early Revivalist drama. On the contrary, this article reveals Synge’s intense preoccupation with modernisation and modernity. Using a variety of unpublished manuscript materials never before discussed in criticism, the article traces the relationship between modernisation and modernism in Synge’s work, arguing that an overt interest in time, space and modernity separates Synge’s one-act plays from those of his contemporaries. Whereas contemporary one-act plays tended towards a minimal spatialisation of time, Synge’s plays insist on pluralisation, and are thus led towards formal crisis. This reading not only prompts us to reconsider the place of modernisation and modernism within the Irish Revival, but also elucidates a marked relationship between the temporal effects of social modernisation and dramatic modernism.
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