'Gritty, Vibrant and Uncompromised' Charting Humour in women-centered Troubles drama from intra-conflict to David Ireland's Everything Between Us (2017) and Lisa McGee's Derry Girls (2019)

Abstract

During the Troubles, humour was one of the most constant and successful strategies for healing trauma and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. Drawing from primarily Liora Bresler’s theory on Embodied Narratives, this thesis aims to untangle the dialogue between humour, trauma and memory in relation to the portrayal of the female experience, and, in that way, chart and investigate how and in what way this usage of humour has evolved when comparing intra-conflict drama to post-conflict memory drama. In particular, it explores the representation of humour in relation to the portrayal if femininity and the lived experiences of women in David Ireland’s Everything Between Us (2017) and Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls (2019). In this way, this thesis does not only aim to expand and enrich the academic understanding of the evolving cultural memory of women’s experiences during the Troubles, but also highlight the importance of studying theatre from an interdisciplinary angle.