The Horror Genre in Contemporary Irish L Iterature
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‘A BRUTALIZED CULTUR E’: THE HORROR GENRE IN CONTEMPORARY IRISH L ITERATURE Laura G. Eldred A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English. Chapel Hill 2005 Approved by: Advisor: Weldon Thornton Reader: Pamela Cooper Reader: Patrick O’Neill Reader: John McGowan Reader: William Harmon © 2005 Laura G. Eldred ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT LAURA G. ELDRED: ‘A Brutalized Culture’: The Horror Genre in Contemporary Irish Literature (Under the direction of Weldon Th ornton) This dissertation argues that contemporary Irish authors use the horror genre to critique postcolonial nation-states’ pretensions to coherent national identities. The horror genre, with its interest in hybrid identities and constructions of monstrosity, allows a unique consideration of possible futures for recently postcolonial societies. I begin by situating contemporary authors like Patrick McCabe and Martin McDonagh historically, through comparisons to writers like J.M. Synge and Sean O’Casey who included on -stage violence to undercut an emerging stereotype of the Irish “national character” as dependent on certain religious (Catholic), political (nationalist), and geographic (rural) affiliations. This “Gaelic Romantic” stereotype remains powerf ul today, and contemporary authors use horrific material for reasons remarkably similar to their Irish Literary Renaissance counterparts: as part of a demythologizing project. The first chapter defines the horror genre and argues that it often is explicitl y concerned with constructions of national identity, mainly due to its constructions of monstrosity as that which lies beyond the pale of an accepted “national character.” My second chapter, shows that characters associated with a Gaelic Romantic construct ion of Irish national identity meet with a grisly, horror -film -style end when they are, quite literally, killed off. The third chapter argues that these contemporary authors believe such stereotypes of national identity should be bloodily dispatched not only because they are iii repressive and false, but also because the articulation of an ideal of what the nation is requires the simultaneous articulation of what it is not. The construction of national identity necessitates the abjection of those groups perceiv ed as a threat to that nation, and those groups become a society’s monsters. Contemporary Irish authors are both fascinated by this process and critical of it. They ultimately suggest that abjection cannot provide sufficient ground for a coherent individual or national identity. The final chapter argues that the monstrous emerges in these works as a site of possibility, and that the authors suggest that today’s abjected identities must become tomorrow’s full citizens of the state for a better Ireland to eme rge. The necessary hybridity and fusion inherent in the monstrous provides a blueprint for conceptualizing more fluid, less atavistic identities. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS………………………………………………………….. vii Chapter I INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………. 1 The Horrific Tradition in Ireland………………………………………… 4 Horrific Innovations……………………………………………………... 13 II ALIENS, MAD SCIENTIS TS, AND PSYCHOS: HOR ROR FILMS IN CONTEMPORARY IRISH L ITERATURE …………………………………….. 23 Psycho, Psyc ho Everywhere……………………………………………… 35 The Gothic Nation…………………………………………………………. 46 III KILLING OFF THE NATION……………………………………………………..50 The Pillars of Nation: Scandal and Subversion…………………………… 57 The Irish Literary Massacre……………………………………………… 77 IV MAKING MONSTERS: TECHNOLOGIES OF ABJECTION………………… 99 Monsters and their Victims……………………………………………. 106 Chains of Abjection………………………………………………….. 133 V STITCHED SELVES: MON STROSITY, HYBRIDITY, AND IRELAND’S FUTURE ……………………………………………………………………….. 142 A New Irelan d?....................................................................................... 155 Patrick Pussy Braden and Joseph Mary Tallon: Monsters or Saviors? .. 174 VI CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………… 215 v WORKS CITED……………………………………………………………………….. 229 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration Page 1. The Corpse of Mrs. Bates……………………………………………… 35 2. Beauty Queen of Leenane Poster from TheatreWorks…………………. 37 3. Prince Radian in Freaks ……………………………………………….. 39 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Decomposing fathers, dismembered neighbors, exploding cats . If this sounds like a B-grade 1960s horror film, you are not far off. Many contemporary Irish authors use horrific images to emphasize violence and brutality in their works; so many, in fact, that such seems to be the rule rather than the exception. From the IRA hitman of McNamee’s Resurrection Man, to Banville’s philosophical murderer in The Book of Evidence , to McDonagh’s vicious community in the Leenane trilogy, and finally to the maladjusted and murderous Fra ncie Brady of McCabe’s The Butcher Boy, the halls of contemporary Irish literature are stalked by a great many shady and psychopathic characters. Certainly this is not a new phenomenon, or an exclusively Irish one. One might think of Bret Easton Ellis’s Am erican Psycho or of Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange as contemporary American and British works that utilize brutal violence. Scholars such as David Krause and Vivian Mercier have, however, made the case that the grotesque is, and for centuries has been, central in Irish literature and humor. If it is not an exclusively Irish feature, it is still a particularly Irish one. Irish literature, from the mythological cycles to McDonagh’s The Pillowman , often emphasizes the brutal, the violent, and the horrific. The famed twentieth -century playwrights J.M. Synge and Sean O’Casey provide two famous examples of violent, horrific material presented in order to disturb an audience. However, these contemporary examples, such as Banville, McCabe, McDonagh, and McNamee, see m to differ from Synge, O’Casey, and their other predecessors in more than degree. One might expect contemporary authors to kick the horror quotient of their works up a few notches; as the century has progressed, horrific entertainment has become common an d audiences more desensitized. It takes more to shock the average audience than it would have in 1907, so these contemporary works are bloodier and gorier than their literary ancestors. I believe, however, that the differences between these writers are dee per than this. Contemporary writers who choose to use the horrific as material for their stories have available new precedents and new sources. The ways in which the horrific is used have changed due to the power and range of horror entertainment and liter ature in the mid to late twentieth century. These authors make use of an extensive lexicon of horrific images, films, and plots made available by the popularity of horror literature and film. Despite the fact of this difference, both sets of writers pursu e similar goals. First, horrific images are used to destabilize and disturb the audience. Shocking a reading or viewing audience with extreme violence or gore will make that audience less complacent, and has the potential to make that audience more engaged with the material. Both groups of writers use the uncomfortable moments produced by horrific material in order to advance concerns regarding the state of Irish society. More specifically, all of these writers use horrific moments in order to destabilize a Gaelic Romantic ideal of Irish identity, tied to rural and Catholic values, such as that codified in Ireland’s 1937 constitution. Though this seems to be a common goal on the part of all these writers, the late twentieth century authors approach it differ ently. Their generation has lived through the creation of an Irish state and the state -sponsored solidification of that particular stereotype of Irishness, as well as 2 repressive governmental social policies. In a postcolonial period of national identity co nsolidation, as well as increasing globalization, Irish identity through the last fifty years has simultaneously been coalescing and dissolving. 1 Furthermore, as Ireland becomes increasingly globalized, traditional notions of Irishness increasingly fail to fit the Irish populace. These contemporary authors, then, not only attack a repressive and incorrect stereotype of Irishness, but they also look forward in time and consider how Ireland could achieve a more inclusive identity. The use of horrific images and plots serves several functions. First, in general, horrific material furnishes the stage with appropriate props for a pessimistic, sometimes almost nihilistic, meditation on Ireland and Irishness. Secondly, the use of horror genre plots allows these authors to pit potential identities in a fight to the death; their novels and plays function as a sort of enclosed dog fight, in which possible Irishnesses do bloody battle. Third, the horror genre’s emphasis on monstrosity and its construction allows for these authors to investigate who is allowed into —and who is cast out from—the stereotype of Irishness that we’ve been discussing. The use of horror for these authors is then, on the one hand, part of an Irish tradition, a tradition that emphasizes the use of brutality in order to critique the state of the Irish nation. But it is also innovative, using popular entertainment—namely horror movies —as a tool that allows these authors to express their visions of Irishness in the past and for the future. 1 Unfortunately, you can’t use the word “postcolonial”