“BLOWN OFF THE ROAD OF LIFE BY HISTORY’S HUNGRY BREEZES”: SEBASTIAN BARRY AS THERAPIST AND WITNESS by Kristi Good BA, Kutztown University, 2003 MA, Villanova University, 2007 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH THE DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Kristi Good It was defended on January 31, 23014 and approved by Anne Brannen, Professor, Department of English, Duquesne University Kathleen George, Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Pittsburgh Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Pittsburgh Dissertation Advisor: Bruce McConachie, Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Pittsburgh ii Copyright © by Kristi Good 2014 iii “BLOWN OFF THE ROAD OF LIFE BY HISTORY’S HUNGRY BREEZES”: SEBASTIAN BARRY AS THERAPIST AND WITNESS Kristi Good, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 Sebastian Barry is most notable for creating characters who are based on historical ancestors from his own family tree, particularly individuals who have been selectively silenced for their failure to adhere to political and societal norms deemed appropriate for the historical narrative of Ireland. Five of his plays and five of his novels expressly address this particular issue, but have never before been examined as a cohesive work. In chapter one, I implement Patrick Colm Hogan’s literary theories on how to categorize multiple discourses as a unified work and Franco Moretti’s method of creating illustrative graphs to visually unlock patterns and similarities across discourses.
I propose that the ten discourses be named the Ancestors Cycle in order to acknowledge Barry’s thirty-year effort in service of proposing a more inclusive definition of Irish Identity. In chapter two I examine the relationship model of the therapist/client as a correlate for the writer/character connection that plays out in Barry’s work. Through empathy, therapists are encouraged to relate to their patients in order to facilitate a trusting relationship. Adverse effects can occur in the advent of the therapist’s neurological inability to regulate the distinction between self and other when engaging empathetically with a client.
Writers—who must empathize with the characters they themselves have created—run the same risk as therapists. This chapter focuses on neurological findings regarding empathy and psychological studies on the healing power of narrative, as well as various studies on the power of testimony for iv understanding the role of fiction writers as secondary witnesses and voices for traumatized victims of the historical past. Chapter three contains a case study that highlights Barry’s relationship to the models described in chapter two. The power of Barry’s testimony is at the core of healing the many tears in Ireland’s historical fabric.
By integrating what was once deemed unseemly back into the historical narrative, today’s Irish can better understand in a very complex and real way who they are, where they come from, and how they can situate themselves in a global context for the continued health and growth of Ireland. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .0 IDENTIFYING SEBASTIAN BARRY’S ANCESTORS CYCLE .3 EXAMINING BARRY’S WORK BY DISTANT READING .4 CHRONOLOGY AND CHARACTERS .1 Figure 1: Chronology of Discourses .2 Figure 2: Family Tree.1 Figure 3: Theme of War .2 Figure 4: Theme of Exile .3 Figure 5: Theme of Music .1 Figure 6: Song Recurrence .2 Figure 7: Character Recurrence .3 Figure 8: Causal Sequence Intersections .0 THE WRITER AS THERAPIST AND WITNESS .1 PART ONE: THERAPIST/CLIENT VS.1 The Therapist/Client Relationship .4 The Writer/Character Relationship.5 The Illusion of Independent Agency .2 PART TWO: WITNESS AND TESTIMONY .1 Historical Trauma vs.3 Psychological Trauma and Recovery .1 BARRY AS THERAPIST .2 BARRY AS WITNESS .4 CONNECTING THE EXPERIENCER WITH THE DISCOURSE .5 PROMOTING EMPATHY THROUGH FAMILY TIES. 198 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Chronology of Discourses. 189 Figure 2: Family Tree.
190 Figure 3: Theme of War. 191 Figure 4: Theme of Exile. 192 Figure 5: Theme of Music. 193 Figure 6: Song Recurrence.
194 Figure 7: Character Recurrence. 195 Figure 8: Causal Sequence Intersections. 196 ix PREFACE I could not have completed this dissertation without the help and support of a great many people. First and foremost I would like to thank my Dissertation Committee, Bruce McConachie, Kathy George, Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, and Anne Brannen, for all their guidance and insight into this process.
Equally as important have been my fellow graduate students, particularly those in the Final Seminar Dissertation Support Group: Ariel Nereson, Tommy Costello, Christiana Harkulich, Rohini Chaki, Vivian Appler, Dave Bisaha, Esther Terry, Dave “Sven” Peterson. In terms of content in the dissertation, I would like to thank John D. Good for his initial thoughts on the various illustrations present in Chapter One and Sarah Heingartner for the final graphic design work on those illustrations. Jerry Kelleher of Kelleher Rare Books in County Kildare, Ireland pointed me in the right direction for an elusive source and provided me with an electronic copy to confirm my suspicions.
Tierney and Marie Young were instrumental in decoding some obscure references related to the Irish language. Extra special thanks to Marie Young, whose grá and bród for her country of birth and native tongue helped me to appreciate Sebastian Barry’s work on an entirely new level. Go raibh míle maith agat, a stór. Finally, my most heartfelt thanks go to Dr.
Angela Hartman, who gives insightful dissertation and life guidance; Charles, who gives unconditional love and support every day; Mom and Dad, who taught me to read; and Arashay Borden, who taught me to write.0 INTRODUCTION My fascination with Sebastian Barry’s writing began in 2006, when I worked with him on a production of Prayers of Sherkin at Villanova University. During table work, Sebastian would join us to work through some of his more poetic passages and often share stories regarding particular scenes. The impetus for the entire play (or perhaps, the poem—Fanny Hawke Goes to the Mainland Forever—which came first) was a trip to a family funeral. While Sebastian did not attend, his sister Siuban immediately sought him out upon her return to tell him a piece of information she had learned: their great-great-grandmother Fanny Hawke had been a member of a remote Protestant sect on Sherkin Island, but had been shunned by the community when she married a Catholic man from Cork.
Siuban had been forbidden by her father to speak of the revelation, but naturally she could not keep such a story from her brother. Barry recognized his own existence as one of the wide implications of Fanny’s courageous deed. Among his other anecdotes, Barry suggested that the actor playing Hannah should read Barry’s novel Annie Dunne. He related that Annie was his aunt, and she was the model for the character of Hannah.
Five of his plays and five of his novels deal directly with characters like Fanny and Annie: fictionalized representations of his actual ancestors. These historical people, as well as the characters that represent them, struggle—albeit in very different ways—within society and are, many times, pushed to the margins where they risk being erased from historical memory. In a country such as Ireland, where cultural memory edits itself over the decades in 1 order to preserve a communal history that is “most appropriate” for the survival of the community, Barry’s project to recover these purposely-forgotten lives begs investigation. Barry, of course, is not the first author to produce a collection of stories that incorporates recurring characters, or even representations of actual family members.
What Barry has done— and rather successfully—is navigated the border between the two genres (or three, if we considered Fanny Hawke’s poem as the origin of this project) to create a body of work with a particular purpose: to recover the voices of ancestors whom history has silenced. Scholarship on Barry is rather scarce, considering his popularity as both a dramatist and novelist and his copious output in both arenas. The studies that are available are admirable and well-crafted, but I believe that we are missing something crucial by separating particular plays or novels from the larger thematic grouping. That being said, there has not yet been an analysis or theoretical approach to these ten pieces as a whole, though nearly all scholars will mention the fact that whatever piece they have chosen to tackle is related to one or another of Barry’s pieces.
The grouping does not have a proper title—such as August Wilson’s Century Cycle (or, alternately, Pittsburgh Cycle)— and I believe that we are remiss in not recognizing the unique connection between these ten pieces, regardless of their competing genres or Barry’s production of other pieces that do not fit within the group. Barry has referred to the plays alone as “family plays” or “ghost plays,” 1 but the novels have never been distinguished as such. These discrepancies have led me to ask the question: what is Barry doing, and to what end? As I encountered more and more of Barry’s writing and began to see the connections between the different characters, I decided to create a makeshift family tree. Barry had already introduced so many characters by the time I began reading his drama and literature, and I found 1 Sebastian Barry, “Preface,” Sebastian Barry Plays: 1 (London: Methuen Publishing Limited, 1997), xv.
2 that I could not keep straight in my head who was connected to whom. The result of this paper- and-glue stick construction project was astonishing to me. The physical appearance of the tree spoke so much more to me than the ambiguous connections that floated in my head. This craft project occurred long before I explored the work of Franco Moretti, who would become a major influence on my approach to studying Barry’s writing.
It is obvious that through the years I have become rather devoted to Sebastian’s writing, firstly for his beautiful poetic style and secondly for the extensive intertextuality that revealed itself as I added more and more characters to the family tree I had constructed. I have no doubt that my fascination with his work was born out of my affection for him as a person and artist with whom I was fortunate enough to work during his residency at Villanova. Feeling passionately about one’s area of study and acknowledging an emotional attachment to one’s work is, to me, an important aspect of any scholarly pursuit, but it is not without its dangers. An affective connection to a scholarly subject can result in increased subjectivity and decreased rigor where argument and research are concerned.
In cases where a human being is the subject of study, it is easier to succumb to feelings of adulation or protectiveness. It is my intention in the forthcoming investigation to approach the material with as rigorous and objective a view as possible. It is not my intention to write an academic love letter to Barry, nor to gloss over the hardships he has faced or the missteps he has taken. I mean to present an argument that Barry himself could read and say, “Fair play.” One of the main reasons that I bring this situation to light is chiefly because Barry has undergone hardships and made missteps throughout his career.
I am fortunate, as a researcher, that he is generally very forthcoming when interviewed about these difficult moments. It is not my intention to rub salt into the wound, nor to hypothesize about the possible psychological 3 afflictions from which Barry might be suffering due to the subject matter of his drama and literature. However, some of these difficult moments are worth noting here, so that we understand Barry’s potentially dangerous situation as he undertakes the task of giving voice to his silenced ancestors. One such moment that is worth note is a particular incident that Barry discussed with journalist Nicholas Wroe of the Guardian in 2008.