<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Among the infinite variety of borders crossed in the theatre – social, national, cultural, gender, generic, aesthetic, existential, and many others – this essay focuses on self-reflexive border-crossings in Irish <italic>kunstlerdrama</italic> (artist-drama) and theatre. Spanning over eighty years, in selected plays from W. B. Yeats’s <italic>The King of the Great Clock Tower</italic> (1934), through Brian Friel’s <italic>Faith Healer</italic> (1979), Frank McGuinness’s <italic>The Bird Sanctuary</italic> (1994) and Marie Jones’s <italic>Stones in His Pockets</italic> (1999), to Enda Walsh’s <italic>Ballyturk</italic> (2014), a few forms of theatrical representation of transgressing and/or dissolving boundaries are explored while attempting to delienate which borders need to be respected, which contested, abolished, and then which to be transcended. Artist figures or artworks within drama, embodying the power to move or mediate between different realms of reality, including art and nature, stage and auditorium, life and death, reveal that sacrificial death proves crucial still in a non-sacrificial age, in enabling the artist and/or instigating spiritual fertility. In addition to his/her role, function, potential in affecting social and spiritual life, the representation of the artist necessarily reflects on theatre’s art seeking its own boundaries and opening itself to embrace the audience.</p></abstract>

Among the infinite variety of borders crossed in the theatre – social, national, cultural, gender, generic, aesthetic, existential, and many others – this essay focuses on self-reflexive border-crossings in Irish kunstlerdrama (artist-drama) and theatre. Spanning over eighty years, in selected plays from W. B. Yeats’s The King of the Great Clock Tower (1934), through Brian Friel’s Faith Healer (1979), Frank McGuinness’s The Bird Sanctuary (1994) and Marie Jones’s Stones in His Pockets (1999), to Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk (2014), a few forms of theatrical representation of transgressing and/or dissolving boundaries are explored while attempting to delienate which borders need to be respected, which contested, abolished, and then which to be transcended. Artist figures or artworks within drama, embodying the power to move or mediate between different realms of reality, including art and nature, stage and auditorium, life and death, reveal that sacrificial death proves crucial still in a non-sacrificial age, in enabling the artist and/or instigating spiritual fertility. In addition to his/her role, function, potential in affecting social and spiritual life, the representation of the artist necessarily reflects on theatre’s art seeking its own boundaries and opening itself to embrace the audience.

Crossing Borders in Irish Drama and Theatre. Art, Artist and Sacrifice

Institute of English and American Studies

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Crossing Borders in Irish Drama and Theatre. Art, Artist and Sacrifice"}

Among the infinite variety of borders crossed in the theatre – social, national, cultural, gender, generic, aesthetic, existential, and many others – this...

Crossing Borders in Irish Drama and Theatre. Art, Artist and Sacrifice

Published Online: Feb 25, 2019

Page range: 7 - 23

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2018-0001

Keywords
art, artist, death, sacrifice, self-reflexivity

© 2018 Csilla Bertha, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Crossing Borders in Irish Drama and Theatre. Art, Artist and Sacrifice

Published Online: Feb 25, 2019

Page range: 7 - 23

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2018-0001

Keywordsart, artist, death, sacrifice, self-reflexivity

© 2018 Csilla Bertha, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
art, artist, death, sacrifice, self-reflexivity