“Women’s Voices in Contemporary Irish Theatre

Abstract

The issue of re-establishing the contemporary Irish women playwrights to prominence has gained great attention. Women playwrights feel the need to combat systemic prejudice in the theatre industry, meaning that postfeminists in Ireland are very much present. Although often regarded as a synonym for third-wave feminism, postfeminism has its separate characteristics. One of them is that postfeminism defines equality differently than has been done previously. Equality should not look like androgyny, nor should it be strictly divided based on gender since such a division ignores the human elements of thought, intellect, emotion, and expression. Furthermore, ethical issues in literature have been identified and discussed worldwide for years, not excepting the contemporary Irish theatre. The aim of this paper is to show a notable step towards an increased emphasis on the issue of gender responsibility and solidarity, or lack thereof. The paper also deals with ethical implications and consequences of the ways in which these issues underpin social interactions as well as family and gender relations that Marina Carr and Nancy Harris dramatize in their plays.