Metatheatre in Brian Friel’s The Loves of Cass McGuire: The Semiotics of Make-Believe Metagledališkost v Frielovi drami The Loves of Cass McGuire: semiotika pretvarjanja


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BADRA M. M. M. B.

ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries, cilt.21, sa.1, ss.283-297, 2024 (Scopus) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 21 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2024
  • Doi Numarası: 10.4312/elope.21.1.283-297
  • Dergi Adı: ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Scopus, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.283-297
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Brian Friel, Irish theatre, metatheatre, modern drama, semiotics in literature
  • İstanbul Gelişim Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The purpose of the present paper is to explore the metatheatrical techniques in The Loves of Cass McGuire by Brian Friel. Those include the play-within-a-play, expressionism, as well as the self-reflexive techniques of Brecht’s and Pirandello’s metatheatre. In terms of structure, character delineation, language and setting, Cass McGuire draws attention to Friel’s self-conscious devices. The play dramatizes the frustrations of Cass who deliberately chooses to withdraw to the realm of illusions and dreams, after being disappointed at the unpleasant realities she found at home. The study will also show how Friel managed to create a theatricalized balanced frame that draws the audience’s attention to the theatrical devices and structural features of his play on the one hand, and to the reality beyond the theatre, or the world as “a projection of human consciousness”, as Abel asserts, on the other.