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Comic Elements in the Post-Conflict Dramatic Representation of the Troubles in Northern Ireland
Zdraveska, Marija ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
The purpose of this MA thesis is to analyse the function of the comic elements in several post-conflict Northern Irish plays that deal with the legacy of the Troubles. This thesis stems from the hypothesis that the approach towards the armed conflict has changed during the 20 years of peace and has allowed playwrights to offer comical perspectives that not only critically engage with the issue, but at the same time help both sides of the conflict deal with the remaining trauma caused by it. The thesis provides a close reading of four Northern Irish plays which have achieved a considerable critical acclaim. The four plays chosen for the purpose of this MA thesis are: Tim Loane's comedies Caught Red Handed (2002), produced by the Tinderbox Theatre Company, and first performed in 2002 as a site-specific piece at the Northern Bank Building in Belfast; To Be Sure (2007), also written by Tim Loane, which premiered at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast five years later;1 The History of the Troubles (accordin' to my Da) (2002), a collaboration between the playwright Martin Lynch and the comedians Connor Grimes and Alan McKee, first performed at the Northern Bank as a commission by the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival; and David Ireland's Cyprus Avenue (2016), which premiered the Abbey Theatre in 2016. The choice...
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"And the Land Lay Still"- Worldmaking, Topography and the Modern Scots Novel
Zdraveska, Marija ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
The purpose of this study is to analyse the manner in which contemporary Scottish literature imagines Scotland, especially in the light of the recent political changes in the country, as well as the changes in the perception of its national identity in global terms. The focus will be on the literary representations of the Scottish landscape, following Cairns Craig argument that locality is crucial to Scottish literature and its national imagination. While the fictional rendering of both the rural and urban Scottish landscape might have acted as a 'paradigm of national consciousness' in the past, in contemporary Scottish literature it can now be seen as a form of speculative worldmaking that reflects, satirizes and debates the social and political dispensation of the nation, and aims towards the subversion of the representation of a single Scottish national identity. The texts under consideration all deploy the Scottish social and topographical panorama in a unique manner which results in a literary representation of multiple versions of Scotland that often coexist together. This thesis traces the development of this thematic concern in the contemporary Scots novel from the 1980s to the present through the analysis of the works of three major Scottish contemporary writers: Alasdair Gray, Janice...
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