SPIRIT OF PLACE IN THE PLAYS OF JOHN B. KEANE: A WAY OF READING CONTEMPORARY IRISH DRAMA (SETTING, CULTURAL LANDSCAPE, INTERPRETATION)

The focus of this dissertation is a way of reading contemporary Irish plays. Central to this purpose is a definition of place as it functions in drama and an understanding of the importance of place in the Irish imagination. The works of John B. Keane are especially suitable for this study because they are both popular and representative of a particular region in Ireland. The first two chapters define the role of place in drama and trace the development of the Irish concern with place through the peasant plays. Chapter 3 examines Keane\u27s folk plays and his use of specific stage conventions to evoke the Kerry countryside. The final chapter presents the themes of land, emigration and marriage in Keane\u27s later plays and his use of the sense of place as a tool of social criticism. In this study, place is a way to meaning which interprets the use of specific stage conventions as signals of the cultural heritage of Ireland. This interpretation suggests that devices from folklore, religion and social tradition comprise an environment that shapes contemporary Irish plays. The literary landscape, thus created, forms a relationship between the artist and his audience based on their shared heritage. John B. Keane, a successor to the peasant playwrights of the Celtic Revival, demonstrates the vitality of the sense of place in modern theatre. Although he employs traditional themes, Keane\u27s angle of vision shifts the motifs from the political interests of the early plays to a concern for the individual within the system. Place functions as a formal and thematic element in Keane\u27s dramas. Authentic characters, music and language provide details that evoke the North Kerry landscape; these same conventions comprise a frame of reference for the thematic concerns of his plots. Traditional characters juxtaposed with contemporary issues result in the dual thrust of nostalgia and criticism that marks his plays. John B. Keane deserves to be recognized as a playwright who expressed the struggle for individual identity against a background of cultural expectations