Codes and masks

The collection comprises ten essays which engage in analysing the variety of ways the complex issue of identity is explored in contemporary Irish plays, including the works of John Barrett, Marina Carr, Anne Devlin, Brian Friel, Thomas Kilroy, Martin McDonagh, Thomas Murphy, Donal O’Kelly, and Stewart Parker. While drawing on the recent results of Irish scholarship, the essays deploy a choice of postcolonial, cultural materialist, feminist and receptionist perspectives. Affinities, parallels and contrasts with the classics of Irish drama as well as with world theatre are highlighted, and questions of adaptation, re-writing and intertextuality are also examined. The book contributes to the ongoing international discussion of the thematic and aesthetic qualities and merits of drama written in the context of postcolonial Ireland.