A Critical Study of Brian Friel’s Nationalism: Friel Between Politics and Nationalism

Abstract

Taking the Historical background into consideration, the study will shed light on Friel's political and national dogmas. The study addresses large and important issue concerning Friel’s role as the national dramatist of Ireland. The study examines the relationship between Friel's drama and his political stance and by extension the larger issues of literature and colonialism and literature and history. The study aims at proving that Friel is a nationalist but not a politician; in other words, the study argues that Friel’s philosophy of the Field Day theatre is seen within a cultural perspective. Friel’s plays are not only related to the political situation in Ireland, but they are also employed to shed light on the Irish cultural context. Thus, Friel’s establishment of the Field Day Theatre comes as a confirmation of Friel’s cultural insights which though presented Irish life. Still it did not follow a direct historical or a political treatment of the themes of his plays, rather he focused on stressing the national identity of the Irish audience. The study proved that Friel’s works are nationalist in tendency within a cultural perspective.

Keywords: Brian Friel; Field Day Theatre; Irish Theatre; National literature; post- colonial literature.

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-4-10

Publication date: February 29^th 2020