The Form of the Nation Made Perfect: The Politics of Irish Historical Drama

A new study of the political and social context of selected Irish historical dramas of the 18th ,19th and 20th centuries. Includes both thematic analyses of plays dealing with Robert Emmet and Brian Boru as well as individual analyses of plays be Dion Boucicault, Brian Friel, Denis Johnson, Lady Gregory, David Rudkin, Thomas Shadwell, W.B. Yeats. This work will be of great interest to researchers in Irish theatre and drama as well in Irish social history.

" . . (T)his work breaks new ground in the study of the historical and political in Irish drama. The historical drama in Ireland has always had an element of "claiming" the past for a very particular political or religious present i.e. "our heroes" against theirs, or, too often, "our hatred" against theirs . . . Professor Hawkins is to be congratulated for a fine research work that discusses the theatre as a means of historical and political persuasion and possession and redress."
Professor R.B. Mahony.