RESURRECTIONS: THE USE OF FOLKLORE THEMES AND MOTIFS IN !\1ARINA CARR'S WORKS by ERIC-MICHAEL MACCIONNAITH A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Theater Arts and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2008 11 "Resurrections: The Use of Folklore Themes and Motifs in Marina Carr's Works," a dissertation prepared by Eric-Michael MacCionnaith in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the Doctor ofPhilosophy degree in the Department ofTheater Arts. This dissertation has been approved and accepted by: John Wats'tf.hi,i; ~f'il?e' E~;,.;r~ Co;"';;ittcc ,,4LM3 Date Committee in Charge: John Watson, Chair John Schmor Diane Dugaw Robert Barton Accepted by: Dean ofthe Graduate School 111 © 2008 Eric-Michael MacCionnaith IV An Abstract of the Dissertation of Eric-Michael A. MacCionnaith for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Theater Arts to be taken March 2008 Title: RESURRECTIONS: THE USE OF FOLKLORE THEMES AND MOTIFS IN MARINA CARR'S WORKS. Approved: Dr. John Watson This study explores and demonstrates how Marina Carr uses Irish folktale motifs in her plays to bring the audience to a state of mind where they viscerally, as opposed to intellectually, engage with Ireland's search for a cultural post-colonial identity. The analysis of Carr's works focuses on four of her post-Ivfai plays: The Mai, Portia Coughlan, By the Bog ofCats, and On Raftery's Hill. The focus is on the connection between these plays and Irish folklore, and explores Carr's use of folklore motifs within her plays. The analysis uses the folkloristic research approach, which classifies items or stories in the folktales by identifying distinguishing characteristics or specific items within a tale genre. The indices used in the analysis are Aarne-Thompson Index, Tom-Peete Cross's Motif-Index ofEarly Irish Literature, and Sean O'Sullivan's Motif-Index ofIrish Folklore. The plays were searched for motifs that correspond with those of the folktale motifs, and were then compared with those found in the indices. A second analysis showed that, within these four plays, Marina Carr mainly uses Irish folktales from before England's colonization. She modifies the folktales within her plays, specifically around the issue of agency for her female protagonists. The concluding chapter offers a Jungian explanation of Carr's use of these folk1ales as a means to engage the Irish national discussion of the development of a culturalldentity. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Eric-Michael A. MacCionnaith PLACE OF BIRTH: Wilmington, Delaware DATE OF BIRTH: January 27,1971 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University ofOregon, Eugene, OR University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor ofPhilosophy, Theater Arts, 2008, University of Oregon Master of Science, Research Psychology, 1997, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Bachelor of Arts, Theater and Speech, 1994, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Bachelor of Science, Psychology, 1994, University ofTennessee at Chattanooga AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Irish Theater Folklore Directing VI ACKNOWLEGEMENTS A handful of words at the beginning of this dissertation seems entirely inadequate for the task ofthanking those who I wish to acknowledge for their contributions to my success in the completion of this writing. However, since words of thanks are all I have now, I did not want the moment to escape without sharing with the world (or perhaps rather whoever might happen unsuspectingly to pick up this dissertation when they were looking for, say, The Great Gatsby) the wealth of assistance, support, caring, and patience that were afforded to me in earnest altruism. First and foremost, and beyond all words, I cannot imagine this work having been completed without the patience, support, and loving threats of my wife, Katie. And although he is only two years old, Sage, my son has been a driving force behind the completion of this project. Nothing is more motivating than having a beautiful, hopeful child ask: "When are you going to be done, daddy?" lowe special thanks to my committee members, Dianne Dugaw (who has been a kind and guiding hand with her wisdom and insight both in the field of folklore and in her personal advice throughout my program), Robert Barton (whose publishing advice early on in my career was an inspiration, especially as the process drew out), John Schmor (whose clear, challenging questions helped to both broaden and deepen my thoughts) and to John Watson, my chair (for, well, far beyond what I can acknowledge here. Thank you so very much). And Laura Bennett, you are a goddess. I'll kiss you later. vii For Katie and Sage, and my mom, Andrea V111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION . 1 Biography of Marina Carr . 1 Irish Identity and England . 2 Colonization and the Penal Laws . 3 The Act of Union . 5 Political Violence and Irish Identity . 6 Movements Towards Self-Sovereignty and Identity . 6 Ireland Today, the Celtic Tiger, and Identity . 7 Marina Carr's Place in the Irish Playography . 8 Literature Review . 11 Marina Carr and the Irish Theatrical Tradition . 12 The Feminist Perspective . 20 Methodology . 29 The Plays to be Analyzed . 29 Folklore and Folktales . 29 Folktales as Used in the Analysis . 30 Folkloristics . 31 Pre-Invasion Literature . 33 Post-Invasion Literature . 34 Finding the Motifs within the Plays . 35 Carr's Use of Pre-Invasion Folklore and the Jungian Model ofIdentity Development . 36 II. THE ANALYSIS: THE MAl AND PORTIA COUGHLAN . 40 TheMai . 40 Owl Lake . 40 Lake Creation Mvths and Owl Lake 41 Swans/Geese and Owl Lake . 42 IX Chapter Page Abandonment and Owl Lake .. 46 Faery Mounds and Owl Lake .. 48 Sam Brady, Druids, and the Curse . 49 Destroying Cow and Sam Brady . 50 Birds and Sam Brady . 52 Grandma Fraochlan's Past .. 53 Nine-Fingered Fisherman and Grandma Froachlan . 56 Grandma Fraochlan's Giant Oar . 57 Magic Needle and Thread . 58 Music . 59 Portia Coughlan . 61 The Myth of Belmont River and the Folktale, The Earth Shapers (the Creation of Ireland) . 62 Rivers and the Feminine .. 66 Raphael and Portia 68 Portia and Witches 69 Portia and Gabriel . 70 Agency, the River and Ghosts . 72 III. THE ANALYSIS: BY THE BOG OF CATS AND ON RAFTERY'S HILL . 75 By the Bog ofCats . 75 Hester and Catwoman . 75 Hester, Swans, and Mother-Curses . 79 Prophecy and Mother-Curses .. 83 The Murder of Joseph and Hester's Insanity .. 84 The Property Dispute . 89 On Raftery's Hill . 92 The Curse and Fairies . 93 Faeryforts and FaeryRoads .. 96 The Curse and Disease (Insanity) .. 98 Ded . 98 Dinah . 99 Sorrel . 100 Shalome . 101 x Chapter Page Red . 101 The Curse and Prosperity . 104 Old Raftery, Red, and the Otherworld . 105 IV. CONCLUSION .. 108 Possible Explanations .. 109 Folktales as a Disruption ofthe Abbey's Realist Form . 109 Folktales as Part ofthe Field Day Company's Fifth Province .. 113 The Folktales and Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty .. 114 Pre-Invasion Folklore as Primordial Images ofthe Irish Collective Unconscious 116 Relevance of the Findings and Possible Future Developments . 116 APPENDICES . 119 A. Irish History/Theatrical History Time Line . 119 B. General Synopsis ofthe MotifIndex ofFolk Literature . 125 C. Author and Nationality ofAuthored Index .. 132 D. Raw Results . 133 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 141 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION As a body of works, Marina Carr's plays can be described as persuasive, provocative, rich in poetry, fused with gentle humor and harbored rage. People who are cursed as a result of distrustfulness, lies, and betrayal, and thus are eternally bound to their combined ill fates inhabit the worlds ofher plays. Aching beauty and horror hauntingly cohabit in her plays, grotesque melding with an almost religious sublimity. The so-called "normal" people who happen to wander into her landscapes often seem to be lost and misplaced therein. Many scholars and reviewers have compared Carr's tragedies to those ofthe Greeks. There is an epic, larger than life itself quality to her works. Characters seem locked into a fate that drives them forward, despite their futile attempts 10 resist. In Carr's works, as in the Greek tragedies, karmic bonds exist between characters that cannot be broken. Love is the largest emotion for her characters, though not the Romantic notion oflove, but a bone-deep, primal love that damages those who experience it fullest. Also like the Greeks, Carr latches onto archetypal myths and builds her stories around them. Reviewers often note the similarity ofthe stories to particular Greek plays: Ariel as Iphigenia, By the Bog C!fCats as Medea, Portia Coughlan as Antigone. While there is strong evidence for a connection between Greek tragedy and Carr's work, such an analysis leaves many of Carr's images, such as animal mutilations, fratricide, humans eating live mice, burning livestock, family curses, and twins having sex in the womb unexplained. An analysis that connects Carr's plays to Irish folklore will make sense ofthe seemingly senseless aspects found in her plays. BIOGRAPHY OF MARINA CARR Marina Carr was born in 1964 in County Offaly in Ireland's midlands, an area that features prominently in her work. She was a self-described "scut" (a worthless contemptible person) who built her first theater with her brother in the backyard shed. Much like the work she has shared with the theater community at large, her earliest dramas in that shed were "bloody and brutal" because "scuts know instinctively that morality is a human invention, fallible and variable as the wind, and so our dramas were strange and free and cruel" (McCavana 2005). 2 She attended University College Dublin and graduated in 1987. Following graduation, she became writer in residence first for the Abbey Theatre and then at Trinity College, Dublin.