Abstract
This article deals with the corporeal consequences of violence in two selected works of the Irish playwright Sean O’Casey, The Plough and the Stars (1926) and The Silver Tassie (1928). By focusing on the concepts of analysis of violence brought forth by Sarah Cole, the acts of bodily destruction in O’Casey’s works can be understood as portraying enchanted and disenchanted facets. The damage done to the human body is represented in complex ways in both plays as they demonstrate an intentional mixture of these two types of violence. Enchanted violence is perceived with the glorification of sacrifice while the physical consequences of destruction are hidden from sight whereas disenchanted violence insists on pointing out the hurt body, the grotesque side of pain that debunks any sense of heroism from battle. By analyzing passages from the plays in which physical violence becomes the focal point, the historical contexts of each play, the Easter Rising of 1916 and the First World War, are enlightened in a way that puts the body of the participants and their vivid experiences on the forefront, enhancing the sense of wastefulness and loss caused by armed conflicts.
Highlights
RESUMO: Este artigo trata das consequências corporais da violência em duas peças do dramaturgo irlandês Sean O’Casey, The Plough and the Stars (1926) e The Silver Tassie (1928)
The specialist in literary modernism, Sarah Cole, observes that “as anthropologists tell us, ancient cultures and religions drew their fuel from violence: acquiring its power, protecting against its ravages, rendering it divine or anthropomorphic, creating rituals and ceremonies to slake or reorient it, finding for it a language and an art” (COLE, 2012, p.3)
The devastation brought by violence can be registered in material terms, for instance, in the destruction of architectural structures and even entire cities, but most importantly, in corporeal terms, as the damage to the human body can reach disastrous proportions
Summary
RESUMO: Este artigo trata das consequências corporais da violência em duas peças do dramaturgo irlandês Sean O’Casey, The Plough and the Stars (1926) e The Silver Tassie (1928). World War. Along with these historical moments, excerpts from two plays by the Irish playwright Sean O'Casey will be analyzed, The Plough and the Stars (1926) and The Silver Tassie3 (1928), keeping in mind their connection with Cole’s ideas about violence.
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