Oscar Wilde and Contemporary Irish Drama

This book is about the Wildean aesthetic in contemporary Irish drama. Through elucidating a discernible Wildean strand in the plays ofBrian Friel, Tom Murphy, Thomas Kilroy, Marina Carr and Frank McGuinness, it demonstrates that Oscar Wilde's importance to Ireland's theatrical canon is equal to that ofW. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge and Samuel Beckett. The study examines key areas of the Wildean aesthetic: hisaestheticizing of experience via language and self-conscious performance; the notion of the dandy in Wildean texts and how such a figure is engaged with in today's dramas; and how hiscontribution to the concept of a 'verbal theatre' hasinfluenced his dramatic successors. It is of particular pertinence toacademics and postgraduate students in the fields of Irish drama and Irish literature, and for those interested in the work of Oscar Wilde, Brian Friel, Tom Murphy, Thomas Kilroy, Marina Carr and Frank McGuinness. okokpoj