Reshaping the contours of Northern Irish drama: Didactic Fragmentation in Owen McCafferty's "Scenes from the Big Picture" (2003)

Virginie Privas-Bréauté (1, 2)

1 RADAC
2 IETT - Institut d'Etudes Transtextuelles et Transculturelles

In "Dramatis Personae", a tribute to one of his former drama and English teachers, Northern Irish playwright Stewart Parker mentions the contribution of Bertolt Brecht to world drama in general and to the Northern Irish stage in particular. Therefore, relying on Brecht's theory about drama we can point out how the contours of contemporary Northern Irish drama are reshaped, especially on plays that have been written after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In this paper, we intend to analyze Brechtian fragmentation in Owen McCafferty's "Scenes from the Big Picture", an experimental play which borrows much from the German playwright's theory. A close study of the articulation between didacticism and fragmentation, two key-concepts developed by Bertolt Brecht, shall be carried out in parallel.

Keywords: Brecht; didactic; Ireland; drama

Domains: Literature

Virginie Privas-Bréauté. Reshaping the contours of Northern Irish drama: Didactic Fragmentation in Owen McCafferty's "Scenes from the Big Picture" (2003). 2013. ⟨halshs-00817206⟩