Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
English
Date of Award
8-2009
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Katherine Weiss
Committee Members
Karen L. Cajka, Thomas H. Crofts
Abstract
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Ireland's identity was continually pulled between its loyalties to Catholicism and British imperialism. In response to this conflict of identity, W. B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory argued the need for an Irish theatre that was demonstrative of the Irish people, returning to the literary traditions to the Celtic heritage. What resulted was a questioning of religion and politics in Ireland, specifically the Catholic Church and its priests. Yeat's own drama removed the priests from the stage and replaced them with characters demonstrative of those literary traditions, establishing what he called a "new priesthood". In response to this removal, Yeat's contemporaries such as J. M. Synge and Bernard Shaw evolved his vision, creating a criticism and, ultimately, a rejection of Irish priests. In doing so, these playwrights created depictions of absent, ineffectual, and pagan priests that have endured throughout the twentieth century.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Valley, Leslie Ann, "Replacing the Priest: Tradition, Politics, and Religion in Early Modern Irish Drama." (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1856. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1856
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.