The playboy of the western world: The subversion of a traditional conception of Irishness?

Summary

This paper aims to reveal some of the reasons why such a phenomenon as the Abbey Theatre turned out to be more than a chance dramatic failure in the recent history of Ireland. Many of the plays performed there frequently embodied an inversion of the most sacred values of a very restrictive ideological construct that would be known as the Irish nation by the political nationalists. John Millington Synge's linguistic representation of the Irish woman in a comedy like The Playboy of the Western World surprised the audience at every turn. The linguistically impolite behaviour of those female characters was impolitely answered by the so‐called “Playboy Riots”.

Hierdie artikel beoog om sommige van die redes aan die lig te bring waarom ‘n fenomeen soos die Abbey‐teater meer was as ‘n toevallige dramatiese mislukking in die onlangse geskiedenis van lerland. Baie van die dramas wat daar opgevoer is het dikwels ‘n omkering vergestalt van die heiligste waardes binne ‘n baie streng ideologiese konstruksie, wat onder politiese nasionaliste bekend sou staan as die lerse nasie. John Millington Synge se linguistiese representasie van die lerse vrou in ‘n komedie soos die The Playboy of the Western World het die gehoor telkens verras. Die linguistiese ongepoetste gedrag van daardie vroulike karakters is grof beantwoord deur die sogenaamde “Playboy Riots”.

Keywords:

• reception theory
• linguistic criticism
• discourse analysis
• gender studies
• principle of politeness
• deviation from stereotype
• Anglo‐Irish literature
• Abbey Theatre
• J.M. Synge