Claudia Parra Building Empowerment Through
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CLAUDIA PARRA BUILDING EMPOWERMENT THROUGH DRAMA: SEAN O’CASEY’S FEMALE REPRESENTATIONS IN THREE DUBLIN PLAYS São José do Rio Preto 2020 CLAUDIA PARRA BUILDING EMPOWERMENT THROUGH DRAMA: SEAN O’CASEY’S FEMALE REPRESENTATIONS IN THREE DUBLIN PLAYS Tese apresentada como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do título de Doutora em Letras, junto ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, do Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas da Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”, Câmpus de São José do Rio Preto. Financiador: CNPq – Proc. 140054/2017-0 Orientador: Prof. Dr. Peter James Harris São José do Rio Preto 2020 CLAUDIA PARRA BUILDING EMPOWERMENT THROUGH DRAMA: SEAN O’CASEY’S FEMALE REPRESENTATIONS IN THREE DUBLIN PLAYS Tese apresentada como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do título de Doutora em Letras, junto ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, do Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas da Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”, Câmpus de São José do Rio Preto. Financiador: CNPq – Proc. 140054/2017-0 Comissão Examinadora Prof. Dr. Peter James Harris UNESP – Câmpus de São José do Rio Preto Orientador Profa. Dra. Giséle Manganelli Fernandes UNESP - Câmpus de São José do Rio Preto Profa. Dra. Claudia Maria Ceneviva Nigro UNESP - Câmpus de São José do Rio Preto Profa.Dra. Laura Patricia Zuntini De Izarra Universidade de São Paulo – Câmpus São Paulo Profa. Dra. Mariana Bolfarine Universidade de Federal de Mato Grosso – Câmpus Rondonópolis São José do Rio Preto 10 de fevereiro de 2020 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I shall begin by thanking my supervisor, Dr. Peter James Harris, for his supportive and encouraging assistance throughout my trajectory in Irish Studies. I gratefully thank Dr. Cláudia Maria Ceneviva Nigro and Dr. Giséle Manganelli Fernandes for agreeing to be in the qualification exam and in the public defense, as well as Dr. Laura Patrícia Zuntini de Izarra and Dr. Mariana Bolfarine for accepting the invitation to participate in the public defense of this dissertation. Special thanks to Professor Dr. Alvaro Luiz Hattnher for his treasured contribution during all the process of writing this thesis, and for whom I hold a profound admiration. This thesis is dedicated to my son, Lorenzo, whose birth transformed me into a stronger woman. Many thanks go to my beloved parents who have supported me in different moments of my life, and to my lovely and dear friend Anna Patricia Zakem China. Lastly, I must also express my gratitude to CNPQ (process number 140054/2017- 0) for fully funding my research. ABSTRACT Irish female imagery and its connection with aspects related to power and gender expectations during the period of Ireland’s independence is an interrelation which requires further examination, particularly regarding those women who lacked any special social status and attention. In Sean O’Casey’s first three productions for the Abbey Theatre, The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926), the dramatist surprises the audience by staging representations of Dublin tenement women from different backgrounds, which subvert the prevailing image of powerless females in Irish drama, conferring visibility and an appropriate representation to those marginalised, but strong individuals. These characters are represented as empowered subjects as they undergo a process of strengthening which enables them to surpass domineering structural forces and challenge conservative and oppressive gender expectations about power. From a broader perspective, the thesis shows that O’Casey’s female images also contribute to a reassessment of social roles, since the Three Dublin Plays may be regarded as a rehearsal of issues surrounding the empowerment of Irish women. Keywords: Sean O’Casey. Three Dublin Plays. Female Representation. Empowerment. RESUMO A imagen da mulher irlandesa e sua associação com aspectos relativos a poder e questões de gênero durante o período de independência da Irlanda é uma relação que requer um exame mais aprofundado, principalmente no que diz respeito às mulheres pobres. Nas três primeiras produções de Sean O’Casey no Abbey Theatre, The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), Juno and the Paycock (1924) e The Plough and the Stars (1926), o autor surpreende a plateia ao levar para o palco representações de mulheres em diferentes contextos das tenement-houses em Dublin, subvertendo a predominante noção de fragilidade do feminino no drama irlandês, conferindo visibilidade e uma representação apropriada dessas mulheres marginalizadas, mas empoderadas. Essas personagens são representadas como mulheres fortes à medida que passam por um processo de empoderamento que lhes permite enfrentar e sobreviver a forças estruturais dominantes e desafiar presuposições conservadoras e opressivas sobre gênero no que diz respeito a poder. De uma perspectiva mais ampla, a tese mostra que as imagens femininas de O’Casey também contribuem para uma reavaliação de papéis sociais, uma vez que as peças de Three Dublin Plays podem ser consideradas como um ensaio das questões que envolvem o empoderamento das mulheres irlandesas. Palavras-chave: Sean O’Casey. Three Dublin Plays. Representação Feminina. Empoderamento. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................ p. 7 1. Empowerment Theory………………………………………..……….………...p. 27 1.1 Empowerment: The Origins of the Term……………….….…….…...p. 27 1.2 Theorising the Concept ………………………………….….…….…...p. 36 1.3 Empowerment: A Methodological Approach for Women’s Studies..p. 46 2. Empowerment and Irish Women ………………………………………………p. 52 2.1 Twentieth-Century Women: Dublin’s Tenement Heroines …………p. 53 2.2 Objective and Subjective Forms of Oppression………………………p. 54 2.3 From Hidden Personal Stories to a Powerful Collective Narrative…p. 72 3. Considerations on Drama ……………………………………….…...………. p. 77 3.1 Character.……………………………………….…...………….….…. p. 78 3.2 Subject v. Object Character: An Approach to the Individual Dimension ……………………………………………………………………………….p. 86 3.3 Drama for Social Transformation: An Approach to the Collective Dimension………………………………………………………………..….p. 90 4. When Empowerment Meets Drama: The Timeless Contribution of Three Dublin Plays to the Representation of Irish Women ……………………..…………...….p. 95 4.1 O’Casey’s Feminist Vein ……………………………....…………...….p. 101 4.2 Three Dublin Plays through the Lense of Empowerment.……...……p. 105 4.2.1 The Shadow of a Gunman ……………………………….… p. 105 4.2.2 Juno and the Paycock…………………………….………… p. 120 4.2.3 The Plough and the Stars …………………………..……… p. 135 4.3 Female Representation in Three Dublin Plays: Individual and Collective Empowerment …………………………………………………………………… p. 151 5. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………..….p. 159 6. Works Cited ………………………………….…………………..………….…p. 166 7 INTRODUCTION I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system. 1 Mary Robinson, Ireland’s first female president, 1990. An obvious inference about women and men is that distinct hormones and sexual organs make them possess diverse abilities and experience the world differently. However, gender expectations tend to exaggerate this distinction. In fact, gender as it functions today prescribes how individuals should be rather than helping us to recognise and respect how people are. The result is a system of inequality which dictates the social rules between the two sexes, subordinating the female figure to the male one as if such a ‘logical’ model was a notion of what would be best for humanity and for the good of society. The inconsistency of this scheme resides in discriminatory social conventions created from a raw assumption based on biological arguments. Thus, contesting the prevailing gendered scheme does not entail suspending or repealing recognition of men’s general superiority in relation to physical force; for instance, Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneer of women’s right and often considered to be one of the first feminists, recognised “that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature”; however, she questioned whether such a physical prerogative could justify conceiving of women as inferior “human creatures, who, in common with men, are placed on this earth to unfold their faculties…” (7).2 Reinforcing Wollstonecraft’s allegation, almost eighty years later, John Stuart Mill stated that the adoption of social order comes from the reason that “laws and political systems always begin by recognising the relations they find already existing between individuals”, which, in relation to appropriated roles for women and men, converts a mere physical fact into legal rights (3). On account of this, a matter of biological difference becomes a question of power. Stereotyping gender roles has a direct interrelation with power because the process of transforming a natural advantage into a social privilege ends up conferring on a single group the right of controlling and setting standards for legal matters. In the current patriarchal system, despite women’s considerable achievements in different social spheres throughout the last two centuries, the male figure still represents the active force of humanity. Most controlling and influential positions are occupied by men, as if there was an invisible 1 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/30-great-quotes-about-ireland-and-the-irish/30-great-quotes-about- ireland-and-the-irish21/ 2 This dissertation uses the rules contained in the