Writing The Myth Of The West Of Ireland In The 20^thCentury Irish Drama

This paper aims to analyse the writing of the myth of the West of Ireland in Synge,Murphy and McDonagh's plays against the context of three different periods in Irish literary history so as to trace the development of the writing of the myth of the West of Ireland in the 20th century Irish drama,revealing its political and cultural significance in constructing Irishness.Taking Synge's Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World,Murphy's Bailegangaire and Conversations on a Homecoming,McDonagh's A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West as the subject study,the paper points out that the three playwrights depict different facets of the West of Ireland owing to their different backgrounds,perspectives and historical periods.Therefore,their plays bear their own unique,creative features:Synge constructs a paradoxically dreamlike and realist myth of the peasant life in the West of Ireland,Murphy presents an anti-pastoral myth of material and spiritual famine by unmasking the falsity of De Valera's rural idyll myth,while McDonagh depicts an exaggerated and unrealistic black pastoral by demystifying the romantic myth of the West of Ireland.Taking different approaches,the three famous playwrights cast their eyes on the West of Ireland in order to depict the cultural myth of Irish nation.As the myth of the West of Ireland originated in the Irish Literary Renaissance,which regarded the West as the cultural symbol of nationality,poetic pastoral and Irishness,Synge stands as the forerunner of this literary tradition,while Murphy and McDonagh are both inheritors,but they display the rebellious consciousness of deconstruction.Compared with Murphy's conservative standpoint,McDonagh radically takes on a more critical viewpoint.By comparing the three different periods in the 20th century Irish drama,the dissertation concludes that the development of writing of the myth of the West demonstrates the features of binary tension,which signifies the important role of writing the myth of the West in constructing Irishness.The definition of Irishness has gradually changed from a narrow sense of "Gaelic culture,rural life and Catholicism" to a more tolerant sense of "globalization,pluralism and heterogeneity" in the past 100 years.To conclude,Synge,Murphy and McDonagh stand in their unique ground,and dare to challenge and sharply criticize Yeats and De Valera's mystifying of the Irish West.By showing a strong sense of social responsibility with broad and genuine realistic concern,they not only interpret the zeitgeist,but also present the national spirit of Irish people.