Irish Literature and Culture ed. by Michael Kenneally

Abstract

on by feminist theorists in other contexts. But she is alert to the ways in which the text at times almost celebrates (albeit grudgingly) women’s witty and resourceful evasions of a patriarchal system that could have been suffocating. This book is a welcome addition to Grosart’s 1884 edition and F.P. Wil­ son’s 1929 edition, both out of date and neither very user-friendly to non­ specialists. Its modern spelling and its “nonspecialist” glosses and notes will make it accessible to students; any chance to enrich the classroom with Renaissance texts outside the usual Shakespeare/Spenser/Marlowe/Jonson range is always cause for rejoicing. lin d a w o o d b r id g e / University of Alberta Michael Kenneally, ed., Irish Literature and Culture. Irish Literary Studies 35 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1992). x, 196. Illustrated. Irish Literature and Culture is a collection of eleven essays, nine of which were presented at the 1988 conference of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies, held at Marianopolis College, Montreal. The remaining two papers, one by Andrew Carpenter tracing the transformation of attitudes toward Irish musical and literary culture in eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish litera­ ture from rejection to acceptance, and the other by Mary Helen Thuente demonstrating the literary, cultural and political importance of The United Irishman, were solicited for this volume. These two essays, along with Terry Eagleton’s study of the aesthetics and politics of Edmund Burke, and Patrick Rafroidi’s assessment of the complex social and aesthetic impact of the work of Thomas Moore, provide a rich literary/historical background for the other seven essays whose focus is on more contemporary aspects of Irish literature and culture. Three of these examine the relationship between modern Irish literature and the sister arts. In the first, “No More Poems About Paintings?,” Edna Longley explores the influence of Pre-Raphaelite art on modern Irish poetry from Yeats to Paul Muldoon. In the second, “Music and Ritual in Ulysses,” Zack Bowen argues that Joyce’s treatment of music and song is complex and ironic. For most of the characters in Ulysses, according to Bowen, music is the means by which they create and heighten profane rituals. Bowen, however, views Bloom differently. Using music and song, Bowen sees Bloom ironically debunking the phony rituals to which the other characters are devoted. In the third, “Stage Design As A Form of Dramatic Criticism,” Richard Cave carefully compares the stage designs of different productions of plays by Wilde, Yeats, and O’Casey and convincingly demonstrates that 102 stage design at its best not only involves a high degree of dramatic criticism and appraisal, but is also, despite its collaborative nature, an art form in itself that can significantly enhance the dramatic effectiveness of a play. The final four essays in the collection discuss more generally the cultural contexts of Irish drama, cinema, and politics. Wolfgang Zach’s “Criticism, Theatre and Politics: Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City and its Early Re­ ception,” describes the highly polemical nature of the Irish, English, Amer­ ican, and German responses to the first productions of Friel’s The Freedom of the City in Dublin, London, New York, and Wiesbaden. He concludes that both the immediacy and the engagement typical of such reviews in­ variably tell us at least as much about the aesthetic views, the theatrical expectations, and the political opinions of the reviewers and the audiences as the play does. One of the more discouraging implications of this essay, particularly when it is read in conjunction with Richard Cave’s analysis of stage design, is that theatrical verisimilitude remains a fiercely held expec­ tation and “value” by a wide cross section of post-Brechtian reviewers and audiences both in Europe and North America, and that dramatic experi­ mentation is still not well understood or welcome. Such a state of dramatic affairs may well have a negative impact on the production and reception of the non-realistic dramatic works of Yeats and O’Casey as well as some of Friel. Declan Kiberd’s “Fathers and Sons: Irish-Style” introduces the cultural cliché that Irish domestic relationships are characterized by an over-intense relationship...