New publication: Queer Performance and Contemporary Ireland: Dissent and Disorientation
Fintan Walsh, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies, has just had his latest book Queer Performance and Contemporary Ireland: Dissent and Disorientation published by Palgrave.
Fintan Walsh, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies, has just had his latest book Queer Performance and Contemporary Ireland: Dissent and Disorientation published by Palgrave.
'The surge of queer performance produced across Ireland since the first stirrings of the Celtic Tiger in the mid-1990s, up to the passing of the Marriage Equality referendum in the Republic in 2015, forms the focus of this book. While unprecedented economic expansion stimulated the growth of certain aspects of LGBTQ culture during this time, as the case studies examined here reveal, a great deal of queer performance illuminated the darker social consequences of frenzied capitalism, systemic state failings and pernicious cultural crises.
Tracking scenes of dissent and disorientation across diverse sites and contexts, the book foregrounds performance that animates interactions between gender and sexuality, and issues relating to migration, religion, place, age, economics and class, ethnicity and national identity. It considers how performance engaged with same-sex partnership and marriage debates, but perhaps queerer still, offered some remarkably nuanced perspectives on interpersonal intimacy, social support, public participation and cultural belonging, with the capacity to inspire and provoke beyond an Irish or LGBTQ context.'
'Walsh offers an eloquent, beautifully parsed analysis of LGBTQ performance in Ireland, and the affective history and potential of the nation itself, seen through queer theatre. With a deft touch, Walsh develops deeply thought, persuasive, moving arguments about the vital social and performative projects of queer Irish artists.' – Jill Dolan, Annan Professor of English, Princeton University, USA
'This important study captures Irish theatre at a moment of major transition, showing how queer performance practices are changing our understanding of how drama is made and received, both in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Methodologically rich and engagingly written, the book gives much needed attention to such figures as Panti Bliss, Amy Conroy, Neil Watkins and Wayne Jordan. It will be of great value to scholars of Irish theatre, and is a significant contribution to the study of queer performance internationally.' – Patrick Lonergan, Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway