Universal Identities and Local Realities: Young Poland's (Mis)readings of Synge

Authors

John A. Merchant, Loyola University ChicagoFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2011

Publication Title

Polish-Irish Encounters in the Old and New Europe

Publisher Name

Peter Lang

Publisher Location

Oxford ; New York, N.Y.

Abstract

The problems Young Poland experienced in understanding the work of John Millington Synge were informed by precisely the same kind of behaviors that Daniel Corkery described in his argument for a truly native Irish national literature in the 1930s. Overcome by a strong sense of self, Poles were not fully able to appreciate the complexities and nuances of Synge's work and by extension, the Irish-Ireland movement. In the end, then, Young Poland was incapable of really understanding the Irish, and so the best they could do was to associate with them. As a result, Poles may have been able to appreciate Synge as an original dramatic talent, but his place in the repertoire of the Polish theatre would be limited to meeting the internal cultural needs of Young Poland in the decades leading up to Polish independence.

Identifier

ISBN: 9783035301915

Comments

Author Posting © Peter Lang, 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Peter Lang for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Reimagining Ireland: Polish-Irish Encounters in the Old and New Europe, 2011. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0353-0191-5

Recommended Citation

Merchant, John. "Universal Identities and Local Realities: Young Poland’s (Mis)readings of Synge," Polish-Irish Encounters in the Old and New Europe, edited by Egger, Sabine, and John McDonagh. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang UK, 2011. < https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0353-0191-5>. Web. 6 May. 2020.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright Statement

© Peter Lang, 2011.