Lady Gregory and Irish National Theatre: Art, Drama, Politics (Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries)

This book is the first comprehensive critical assessment of the aesthetic and social ideals of Lady Augusta Gregory, founder, patron, director, and dramatist of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. It elaborates on her distinctive vision of the social role of a National Theatre in Ireland, especially in relation to the various reform movements of her age: the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, the Co-operative Movement, and the Home Industries Movement. It illustrates the impact of John Ruskin on the aesthetic and social ideals of Lady Gregory and her circle that included Horace Plunkett, George Russell, John Millington Synge, William Butler Yeats, and George Bernard Shaw. All of these friends visited the celebrated Gregory residence of Coole Park in Country Galway, most famously Yeats. The study thus provides a pioneering evaluation of Ruskin’s immense influence on artistic, social, and political discourse in Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction (Eglantina Remport)....Pages 1-16 ‘My Education’: Sir William Gregory, the Grand Tours, and the Visual Arts (Eglantina Remport)....Pages 17-49 ‘The “whorl” of Troy’: Celtic Mythology, Victorian Hellenism, and the Irish Literary Revival (Eglantina Remport)....Pages 51-84 ‘Ní neart go cur le chéile’: Education, Social Reform, and the Abbey Theatre (Eglantina Remport)....Pages 85-119 ‘See a play as a picture’: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Sister Arts, and the Irish Plays (Eglantina Remport)....Pages 121-156 The Light of the World: Christianity, Cultural Politics, and Constitutional Reform (Eglantina Remport)....Pages 157-203 Conclusion (Eglantina Remport)....Pages 205-214 Back Matter ....Pages 215-237