Performing Religion and Spirituality: The Postsecular Turn in Contemporary British and Irish Theatre

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2022Author:
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2029-08-20Citation:
Cummins, Miriam, Performing Religion and Spirituality: The Postsecular Turn in Contemporary British and Irish Theatre, Trinity College Dublin.School of Creative Arts, 2022Download Item:
Abstract:
This thesis argues that there has been a postsecular turn on the contemporary stage,
focussing in particular on woman-centred theatre in Britain and Ireland in the past three
decades. It deals with the representation of the female body in Christianity in a 2007 revival
of Saint Joan by Bernard Shaw and The Testament of Mary (2014) by Colm Tóibín, the
portrayal of the Magdalene laundry in Eclipsed (1992) and Stained Glass at Samhain (2002)
by Patricia Burke Brogan as well as Laundry (2011) by ANU Productions, and the controversy
surrounding the Islamic headscarf in Shades (2009) by Alia Bano and What Fatima Did…
(2009) by Atiha Sen Gupta. It adopts a broad poststructuralist feminist approach, applying
various lenses of postchristian feminism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism to plays that
represent the postsecular. The primary method of analysis employed is textual analysis, but
I have also conducted archival research and refer to aspects of performance including
staging, casting, and reception where possible. The arguments in each chapter contribute to
wider theoretical debates which are contextualized in the introduction to each chapter.
Chapter 2 makes a case for the limits of postchristian feminism insofar as although it grants
women bodily autonomy, the patriarchal power structure of Christianity remains intact.
Chapter 3 argues that postmodernism is an extension rather than a disruption of
modernism. Chapter 4 claims that the presence of the postcolonial Other in Europe in the
form of Muslim immigrants represents an opportunity as much as it represents a threat to
the idea of the secular European Self. This is the first full-length study to identify and
analyse a postsecular turn in contemporary British and Irish theatre. It offers new readings
of well-researched plays such as Shaw’s Saint Joan and ANU Productions’ Laundry as well as
exploring under-researched plays including Alia Bano’s Shades and Atiha Sen Gupta’s What
Fatima Did… While the affinities between the postsecular and the postmodern, and the
postsecular and the postcolonial have been well expounded by John McClure, Mike King,
Graham Huggan, and Bruce Robbins among others, this is also the first study to suggest a
conceptual link between the postsecular and the post-Christian in theatre and performance.
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Irish Research Council (IRC)
Higher Education Authority (HEA)
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https://tcdlocalportal.tcd.ie/pls/EnterApex/f?p=800:71:0::::P71_USERNAME:CUMMINS4Description:
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Author: Cummins, Miriam
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Singleton, BrianPublisher:
Trinity College Dublin. School of Creative Arts. Discipline of DramaType of material:
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