Brian Friel

Alison Younger

Ed. by Ian Campbell Ross, Trinity College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

Born Jan 1929
Activity 1950-ongoing

Places

Born in Ireland, Republic of (Eire)
Active in Ireland, Republic of (Eire)

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Story-writer

Resources

Brian Friel was born on 9 or 10 January 1929 in Killyclogher, County Tyrone. The registration of his name as Bernard Patrick, rather than Brian, may reflect a general tendency in Northern Ireland at that time to discourage the registration of Gaelic names, suggesting that Friel’s examination of split subjectivity in his work may be rooted in the polemicised and separatist politics which characterised the society into which he was born. Arguably this fostered in him a sense of the instability of identity, as his birth certificate reflects a compromise between the binary polar positions that characterised Northern Irish politics. Friel’s family background and education also contributed to his problematic sense of identity. Although b…

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2153 words

Citation: Younger, Alison. "Brian Friel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 May 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1638, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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