MOVING FROM TOPOGRAPHIC TO RELATIONAL SPACES IN BRIAN FRIEL’S DRAMA: SPATIAL RECONFIGURATIONS IN DANCING AT LUGHNASA, WONDERFUL TENNESSEE AND MOLLY SWEENEY

2021-7
Öztürk Yagci, Dilek
This study explores the spatial dynamics of Brian Friel’s drama, mainly in his three plays of the 1990s, Dancing at Lughnasa (1990), Wonderful Tennessee (1993), and Molly Sweeney (1994) against the backdrop of Doreen B. Massey’s relational understanding of space. Drawing on Massey’s reconceptualization of “space” , “place”, and “landscape”, it will be argued in this dissertation that Brian Friel’s plays challenge the conventional idea of rootedness and authentic identity attached to Ireland and Irishness. These plays, subverting the prevalent notions of sense of place and cultural identity, and emphasizing the multiple, shifting, and unbounded nature of places and people, offer an alternative way of approaching space and subjectivity in Ireland and Irish writing. Along with Massey’s conceptual tools, Edward Soja’s concept “Thirdspace” will be employed in order to highlight how spaces and places in Friel’s drama are open and porous, and how they draw attention to the intertwining nature of the spatial and the social. Through the analysis of these late plays of Ballybeg, an imaginary town epitomizing Friel’s vision of the fifth province, an-Other realm for rethinking Ireland and Irishness, this study will conclude that Friel, undermining monolithic constructions of national space and identity, forges a relational understanding of Ireland which embraces multiplicity, the cluster of relations, meetings, encounters and transformation –- a “global sense of place” embodying “the chance of space” within and beyond in Doreen Massey’s terms.

Suggestions

The reconstruction of authorial identity in contemporary author fictions: A.S Byatt’s Possession, David Lodge’s Author, Author and Maggie Gee’s Virginia Woolf in Manhattan
Koç, Nesrin; Öztabak Avcı, Elif; Department of English Literature (2021-8)
This study analyses Possession (1990) by A.S Byatt, Author, Author (2004) by David Lodge and Virginia Woolf in Manhattan (2014) by Maggie Gee as examples of contemporary author fictions. By revisiting historical authors such as Victorian poets, Henry James and Virginia Woolf and juxtaposing these authors with contemporary author figures, these novels present a multi-layered discussion of authorship practices across centuries. The three novels analysed here all deal with the anxiety governing the work of the...
Specters of a Housing Complex: Race, Modern Architecture, and The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Pinar, Ekin (2021-10-02)
Examining the issue of endurance from the perspective of architectural representation, this paper analyzes the afterlives of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex by especially focusing on the 2011 documentary film The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, directed by Chad Freidrichs. The imagery of the demolishment of the housing complex that have largely served as an icon of reactions against modernist architecture. The documentary The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, in turn, unearthed the racial dynamics that underwrote the history of the buil...
Reconstructing History in Post-Industrial City: Steampunk Aesthetic of Les Machines de l’île Nantes
Tükenmez, Başak (2019-12-19)
Bu çalışma steampunk estetiğinin endüstri sonrası dönemdeki mekânsal yansımalarını, 1990'lar sonrasında Fransa'nın Nantes kentindeki eski endüstriyel bölgelerin yeniden geliştirilmesi bağlamında, steampunk tema parkı Les Machines de l’île Nantes'ın (2007) estetik ve mimari özellikleriyle incelenmesi ile tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır. Endüstri sonrası bir estetik biçimi olan steampunk, 19. yüzyıl Victoria endüstrisi ve günümüz arasında paralellik çizerek tarih ve kurgu unsurlarını birleştirir. Geçmiş üzerinde sp...
The Changing Character Of Public Space In An Eastern Mediterranean Port City: From Customs Square To Grand Bazaar In Mersin
Ünlü, Tolga (Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, 2012-12-1)
Bir fiziksel olgu olarak “kamusal mekan”, en genel anlamıyla toplumdaki herkesin kullanımına açık, bireysel etkileşimin en üst düzeyde olduğu açık alanları, parkları, sokakları ve meydanları kapsamaktadır. Bu alanlar içinde özellikle meydanlar, kentsel yaşamın mikro-kozmosu ve eylemlerin özgürce ifade bulduğu alanlardır. Genelde kamusal mekanlar, özelde ise meydanlar günlük etkinliklerin en ilgi çekici biçimde yer alabileceği alanlar olmuştur. Ancak, son dönemde dünyanın birçok bölgesinde ve kentinde toplum...
The Reflections of urban poor in social realist films of Turkey
Uysal, Yıldırım; Ecevit, Mehmet Cihan; Department of Sociology (2015)
This dissertation is analyzing the reflections of urban poor in social realist films in Turkey, within a perspective that begins at the beginning of 1960s and finishes at the end of 1980s. The study is examining this phase with three different dimensions: the change of urban poor since 1960s to 1980s, the change of social realist films since 1960s to 1980s, and mutual interaction of urban poor and social realist films. Besides, thesis is also focusing on the phase since the end of 1980s to today, to underst...
Citation Formats
D. Öztürk Yagci, “MOVING FROM TOPOGRAPHIC TO RELATIONAL SPACES IN BRIAN FRIEL’S DRAMA: SPATIAL RECONFIGURATIONS IN DANCING AT LUGHNASA, WONDERFUL TENNESSEE AND MOLLY SWEENEY,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2021.