Fragmentation in Brian Friel's Selected Plays

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Abstract

                 Reared in Northern Ireland, Brian Friel has experienced the dividedness of his country ever since childhood. He addresses issues such as the workings of memory, history, and past on the people of Ballybeg. The aim of this research is to shed light on the techniques of fragmentation which Friel has experimented with. He has subverted and destabilized conventional stage realism favored by dramatists. As a theme or technique, fragmentation finds its explicit reflection in the critical and dramaturgical analysis of Friel’s Philadelphia Here I Come (1964), Faith Healer (1979), and Translations (1980). Using his conceit and theatrical dramatic excellence, Friel successfully manages to present fragmented discourses and even characters that, torn between two diverse selves, come to suffer from uncertainty and loss.