Badness. Good, isn't it? A bit of badness : Frank McGuinness's dramaturgy of 'Deviance' and the Irish theatrical tradition

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the original plays of the contemporary Irish dramatist Frank McGuinness. McGuinness was bom in Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland in 1950. His first play, The Factory Girls, was produced in 1984. For the past twenty years he has consistently produced plays in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Besides his original plays he has written versions of classical drama, mostly nineteenth century realism. Besides being an award winning playwright of international standing he is also a published poet and academic. I have chosen in this study to focus on original plays for the purpose of uncovering what I describe as the 'queer' elements of his dramaturgy. In utilising the term queer I engage a wide variety of theoretical tools and philosophical positions for my analysis. The theoretical term queer has emerged out of the poststructuralist project, with its attention to the deconstruction of essentialist notions 'truth' and 'nature'. It has also been influenced by feminism and its concurrent attention to issues of gender and politics in society and culture. Perhaps most directly, however. Queer Studies has grown out of gay and lesbian studies and their considerations of issues of sexual diversity and homogenous systems of gender construction and political and social exclusion. The theoretical use of queer theory challenges all previous assumptions about gender and sexual identity politics articulated by feminism and gay and lesbian studies in order to flirther challenge established ideologies.