A study of the representation of confessions in contemporary Anglo-Irish literature and drama

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00461
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02030:English literature and literature in the English language-related
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: SAKAUCHI FUTOSHI 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 教授 (60453990)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: アイルランド演劇 / 告白の表象

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aimed to analyse the representation of confessions in the Anglo-Irish literature and drama of the late 19th and early 21st centuries. The study found that representations of confessions, depicting how characters experience spiritual renewal, when they reveal their traumatic experiences and/or their long-repressed anguishes over past events of their community or their state (in outspoken confessions, or in narratives masquerading as third-person narratives, objective historical narratives, and even as reports of others’ experiences) repeatedly appear in the plays of the period in question. The study also found that these representations of the process of spiritual renewal have the character of secular equivalents of the confessional experience traditionally carried out by the churches and the religious rituals in Ireland.

Free Research Field

アイルランド演劇

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

抑圧的な植民地からの独立以前に演劇運動の興隆を経たアイルランドの歴史的特殊性を理解するためには、国家・社会基盤に対する文化活動の影響を巡る多様な分析と知見の蓄積が不可欠であり、本研究が行った、過去のトラウマの告白とその共有が個人や共同体の変革の契機を生むという演劇的主題の共時的・通時的分析の意義もその点にある。本研究では、アイルランド演劇/文学における「告白」の表象とその受容の分析を通じて、言語の美的構築物が個人や共同体に救済をもたらすというテーマが持つ持続的訴求力を明らかにすると共に、戯曲の持つフィクションの力が現実に影響を及ぼすという思想が連綿と受け継がれている文脈の一端を明らかにした。