Mid-Twentieth-Century Fiction & Drama: Frank O’Connor and Brendan Behan

Frank O’Connor (1903 – 1966)

– born in an unimpressive family marked by his father’s alcoholism, indebtedness and ill-treatment of his mother

– joined the IRA, served in combat during the Irish War of Independence, later imprisoned for his republican views

– served as the Acting Director of the Abbey Theatre where he introduced financially the most successful era

– wrote novels, short stories, essays and reviews, also translated from the Irish

– based his serious short stories on Russian models, especially on Chekhov

– following the ban of his translation published his humorous stories in the magazine New Yorker

– won a great acclaim and popularity in the US, taught at a university and travelled with his lectures

– appreciated also as a literary critic, concentrated on both past and contemporary Irish literature

– admired Yeats and Synge for their ‘presence’ when reading their work

> ‘My Oedipus Complex’: a short story

> The Midnight Court (1945): a translation of the 18^th century Irish poem by Brian Merriman, banned by Irish Catholics, humorously describes a court held by women against a man in his thirties for his being unmarried

> The Big Fellow (1937): a biography of the Irish leader Michael Collins, on the principles of republicanism

[READING: ‘Guests of the Nation’, ‘First Confession’]

Brendan Behan (1923 – 1964)

– born in an educated working class family of famous folk singers in both Irish and English

– involved with the IRA, at 15 went to a bombing mission to Liverpool docks, was discovered and imprisoned

– learned the Irish language in prison and started writing poetry and autobiographical stories

– published some of his stories in the leading Irish literary magazine The Bell (> ‘I Became a Borstal Boy’, 1942)

– in the late 1940s spent some time in Paris (> ‘After the Wake’, an explicitly homosexual story)

– his life-long habit of heavy drinking resulted in his premature death

> Borstal Boy (1958): an autobiographical novel on his prison experience [Borstal = a youth prison]

> The Quare Fellow (1954): a tragicomic play set in prison, written in both English and Irish [‘quare’ = queer]

> The Hostage (1957): the Irish version was very popular in Ireland, the English was even brought to New York, the script was changed everyday so as to keep it always topical, made him famous and rich

[READING: ‘The Confirmation Suit’]