From Page To Stage: On Brian Friel’s Narrative Strategies In The Drama

The year 1964 is widely regarded as the watershed of modern Irish drama by literature critics. Brian Friel is the pivot for this threshold. Friel is a realist playwright who has inherited Irish national drama tradition initiated by Yeats. His writing career has already extended for more than half century since 1960 s. The theme of his play covers an extensive scope: from Irish immigrant to crisis in post-colonial society; from disability of language in communication to Irish identity in modern time. Brian Friel elaborately analyzes Irish history and culture.His plays have been touring across the Atlantic Ocean; moreover, one of them was adopted for big screen. Without any doubts, Friel is the most renowned and representative Irish playwright at the contemporary era.Despite the fruitful research achievements and continuous attention from academic circle, monographs and papers issued abroad confine the research perspective within content of his plays. Brian Friel’s exploration and innovation in the artistry, especially dramatic narration has been neglected so far. Research on Brian Friel is still at the primary stage in domestic. None achievement on his dramatic narrative strategies has been found yet. Therefore, survey on the dramatic narrative strategies in Brian Friel’s plays, this thesis anticipates to not only widen the research perspective of Brian Friel himself, but also to contribute pygmy effort to dramatic narration research in domestic.This thesis will analyze non-linear narrative process, unreliable narrator and first-person retrospective narrative perspective in The Freedom of the City(1973), Faith Healer(1979) and Dancing at Lughnasa(1990)respectively, with application of theories in Brecht’s narration play and James Phelan’s rhetoric narration. Based on it, it will clarify the evolvement of his dramatic narrative strategies and exhibit how Brian Friel transfers the narration on page to stage in all-dimensionally in order to illustrate his contribution in this field.Firstly, it will introduce the traditional drama paradigm and its limitations. By analysis the conflict between matter and form in philosophy, it will elaborate how narration gradually appeared on the stage along with the change of epochal theme. In addition, the role narration in Brecht’s narration play and the core of James Phelan’s rhetoric narration theory will be presented. Secondly, survey on The Freedom of the City will reveal his application of round and juxtaposed narration. It will analyze how Friel produce a rhetoric effect agree with the theme by deconstructing the traditional linear narrative process. Thirdly, in the exploration of Faith Healer, his most postmodern works, it will discuss how to transfer unreliable narration from novel to stage. In a progressive route of “discrepant narration as conflict-polyphonic narration-unreliable narration”, the thesis will analyze the three contradicted narration of the faith healer, mad lover and manager. At last, his skillful master of narrative strategies will be elaborated in the survey of his most famous play, Dancing at Luaghansa. Elements in this memory play e.g. narrator, narrative process and narrative perspective will be analyzed amply.In summary, Friel’s contribution to Irish modern drama is not only in his concerns about Irish culture and politics, but also in his exploration in dramatic narration. In this field, he leads Irish drama to a brand new arena.