> Hi Alison,

     I agree with you about the good audiences for Friel, but one thing I
noticed in Liverpool & Galway last year was that though they had good
audiences, there were fewer panels on drama than had been usual in the
past.

     I don't know if this is the case in Ireland, the UK, and Europe in
general, but in North America it appears that postgraduate studies have
shifted away from a focus on genre to one on period--but "period" seems to
focus on prose (whether fiction or not) & poetry.  The result is that
there are fewer and fewer young faculty who even think of including plays
in their courses and, therefore, a declining focus in academia on drama.

     In fact, as long as 15 years ago, I considered applying for a job in
po-co studies that seemed from the ad to be focused on the novel, so I
called to ask if they were interested in other genres.  When I replied
"drama" when asked what genre, I was told, "Oh no, we teach only serious
literature here."  About the same time, I got a 1-year lectureship in
"Politics and Literature" in spite of the fact that the ad seemed most
focused on medieval lit.  When I asked why, I was told that my application
made them realize that they were not & had not for several years offered
any undergraduate or postgraduate courses in drama other than Shakespeare.
 Both universities were major research institutions.  Nor has the
situation improved.  My department recently hired a Canadianist who, when
asked to teach our course in Canadian drama, responded, "but I was hired
to teach
Canadian literature!"

    Of course, all this leads to fewer and fewer young faculty and
students who have/learn the reading skills necessary to read a play
(i.e., consider the interpretational implications of performance
elements indicated in the text in both stage directions and lines). 
In 20th & 21st century drama, I find that plays "say" increasingly
more & more via performance elements; a study of dialogue alone often
leaves the reader clueless.  This leads to a further decline in the
teaching of dramatic literature (except, of course, in drama
departments, which teach it in a far different way); this is often
excused on the grounds that "there are no good (American, Canadian,
contemporary, fill in the blank) plays"--a reaction that I think has
much to do with the speaker's inability to read a play in the ways
mentioned above.

   This is further compounded by the fact that few drama departments focus
on dramatic literature in the way an English department would; their focus
(at least in North America) is usually more on the practical (often purely
material) aspects of staging a play, not on what it is "saying."  This
leads to abominations such as an expensive professional production of THE
PLOUGH AND THE STARS I once saw which cut the last scene of the Tommies
drinking tea & singing "Keep the Home Fires Burning." I later had an
opportunity to ask the director why he had cut the scene.  He replied,
"Well, you can't do a play just the way everyone else has."  I pressed him
a bit & soon realized that he hadn't a clue as to why the scene was there.

    I realize that this is not strictly a "woman's" issue, but it is one
that should be important to everyone on the list who teaches literature
and perhaps especially to those who teach literature.  Now that women have
finally broken into the male-dominated world of the theatre, it is
especially dangerous to marginalize the genre.   In general (at least in
the 20th & 21st centuries), poetry and prose privilege the individual: an
individual voice speaks to an individual ear--only relatively rarely do we
have the opportunity to attend poetry or prose readings.  This endorses
our period's privileging of the individual over the community and the
subjective over the political.  Drama is the only genre which is innately
"political."  It is meant to be enacted by a group for a group and usually
deals in some way with the doings of the "polis"--particularly with power
relations within the community--an area which is of major concern for
women.  The marginalizing of drama marginalizes "issues"--including
women's issues, which remain important even in the world of relatively
individualized and subjective Third Wave feminism.

    I suspect that part of Friel's appeal lies in the fact that, though
his plays tend to use a single performance element in an innovative way,
they are dominantly realistic and dialogue-oriented and thus accessible to
the majority of readers and directors.  For example, to stay within the
sphere of male playwrights, McGuinness, who uses performance elements &
anti-realistic techniques far more than Friel, receives far less
attention--when's the last time you heard a paper on MARY AND LIZZIE or
even on CARTHAGINIANS?

    What I fear is that your "utopian vision" that your student who is
working on Reid, Carr and Devlin will get equal interest with those
working on Friel & other male playwrights (other than Shakespeare) may
come horribly true--in that dramatists, whether male or female, will
get little interest.  The decline in the study of dramatic literature
is, in terms of "women's issues," I think, important to us all.

    Sorry, all, for polemicizing--I guess I just can't resist the lectern
or the soap-box.

    I wish I could make it to the conference--there I could speak about a
woman dramatist to a good-sized audience--but finances, I fear, make
it impossible.  I wish you all the luck (even though my face is
turning a bit green with envy); I know it will be a great conference.


Maureen Hawkins
Department of English
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, Alberta
T1K 3M4
Canada.




Deidre,
> It's a troubling situation. I do hope you do come along, particularly as
I
> have a new Ph.D student who is working on Irish Women playwrights,and
I'd
> like to get the experience of othe women working on women's writing. As
you know, much of the work I do is on Friel and performance
anthropology.
> Papers on Friel [like Heaney] are always well-attended. My utopian
vision
> is that one day, my student who is working on Reid, Carr and Devlin will
get equal interest. As Boland says, woman is not poet by poetry, perhaps
the same extends across the whole canon of Irish Women's writing.
Bernard was a contemporary of Catherine. He read at the first conference
with McGuckian. We are hoping for Ciaron Carson and Luke Gibbons
too...and, in particular some of our friend from WOIRN.
> Slan go foill
> Alison
>
> O'Byrne Deirdre <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Alison
> Yes, I'll be there! I really enjoyed last year's, and I'm delighted to
see
> that Catherine Byron is doing a reading as I know her and her work well.
I've never heard B Donoghue and am looking forward to that too.
> It wasn't by any means meant as a criticism of you or the other
organisers
> that the audience for Irish women writer panels is small - similar
happens
> at all Irish Studies conferences in my experience. The agenda still
seems
> to be pretty masculinist even after all these years. We were discussing
that in Liverpool at the ACIS conference. That conference was so huge
that
> the smaller audiences for women's panels wasn't particularly noticeable
unless you were watching out for it, which I admit I was. The male
presence was particularly tiny at those panels.
> Still, we keep battling in there, though I have been doing more papers
lately that include men's writing as well. That is partly because I
teach
> both, but there is a small element of hope too that I might actually get
someone along to listen.  Sometimes though I wonder why we are still
coming up against what someone whose name I've shamefully forgotten
described as the 'ampersand' problem in relation to black women's
writing.
> The point she made was that Women's Studies don't include black women,
and
> Black Studies don't include women. Things have certainly changed in that
area (I think), but in 1989 or thereabouts I remember writing an essay
on
> how that is paralleled in the case of Irish women: Women's Studies
courses
> don't include them, and Irish Studies courses are male-dominated. I
would
> like to think that we have made inroads since then, but whenever I give
a
> paper where there are more people on the panel than in the audience I
have
> my doubts.
> Maybe I should be giving a paper on that! (but who would be listening??)
Deirdre
>
> Alison Younger <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Deirdre,
> I'm really glad you responded to this. Whether it's been under
publicised
> in this area I'm not sure, but as you'll know from years one to two,the
conference is growing in size and status without a commnesurate growth
in
> women's writing and women's history panels. I, like you would love to
see
> this remedied.
> I hope to see you there this year
> Slainte
> Ax
>
> O'Byrne Deirdre <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I couldn't agree more, especially as I have presented and attended
papers
> on Irish women's writing for the past two years to a very tiny audience.
I
> know I'm not a Big Name or anything, but I wonder about the apparent
lack
> of interest in women's writing indicated by the small numbers attending
these panels and discussions.
> Deirdre O'Byrne
>
> Alison Younger <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear All,
> would it be possible to post these conference details on the network? It
would be great to see some panels on Gender or Women's Studies
> Slan go foill
> Alison O'Malley-Younger
>
> CALL FOR PAPERS
>
> The University of Sunderland
> Third Annual Irish Studies Conference
> (incorporating the inaugural North East of England Celtic Studies
Symposium)
> 11-13 November 2005
> Word, The Icon and The Ritual [ii] - Lands of Saints and Scholars
>
> Following the success of its last two international conferences:
Representing-Ireland: Past, Present and Future, [2003] and The Word, The
Icon and The Ritual, [2004] the University of Sunderland is soliciting
papers for an interdisciplinary conference, which will run from 11-13
November 2005. This year we are also delighted to welcome proposals from
scholars working within the broader field of Celtic Studies.
>           The conference organisers hope to represent a wide range of
> approaches to Irish and Celtic culture from academics and
> non--academics alike. Performances, roundtables, collaborative
> projects, and other non--traditional presentations are
> encouraged  in addition to conference papers. As with last
> year’s conference, we welcome submissions for panels and papers
> under the thematic headings of: The Word, The Icon, The Ritual
> in the following areas: Literature, Performing Arts, History,
> Politics, Folklore and Mythology, Ireland in Theory,
> Anthropology, Sociology, Art and Art History, Music, Dance,
> Media and Film Studies, Cultural Studies,Gender Studies  and
> Studies of the Diaspora. North American and other international
> scholars, practitioners in the arts, and postgraduate students
> are all encouraged to submit proposals to the conference
> organisers.  We also welcome proposals for papers in absentia
> for d! elegates who wish to participate but may find it
> difficult to attend the event.
> The last two conferences have resulted in the publication of a selection
of essays, and we hope to continue this with essays from this year’s
conference.
> Readings
> Bernard O’Donoghue
> Catherine Byron
> Plenary Speakers Include:
> Professor Robert Welch – University of Ulster
> Professor Michael O’Neill – University of Durham
> Professor Werner Huber, University of Chemnitz, Germany
> Dr Kevin Barry, UEI Galway
>
> Organisers:
> English/Literary Studies: Dr Alison O'Malley-Younger, (Sunderland),
Professor Stephen Regan, (Durham)
> Media and Cultural Studies: Professor John Storey (Sunderland)
> History/Diaspora/Celtic Studies: Dr Richard Allen,(Sunderland)
> Proposals of not more than 500 words should be sent by 20th June 2005 at
the latest to either:
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
> And copied to the Conference Adminstrator
> Susan Cottam – [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
> Slan agus beannacht
>
> Alison O'Malley-Younger [Dr]
> Department of English
> University of Sunderland
>
>
>
>
>
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> Slan agus beannacht
>
> Alison O'Malley-Younger [Dr]
> Department of English
> University of Sunderland
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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> Slan agus beannacht
>
> Alison O'Malley-Younger [Dr]
> Department of English
> University of Sunderland
>
>
>
>
>
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