A "Lingo of Its Ahn": Linguistic Control in The Shadow of a Gunman

Abstract

As discussed in much current scholarship, the root of which may be traced to Edward Said's Orientalism, language and writing are intimately involved in the construction and implementation of both representations of reality (both on and off stage) and the power relations in which those representations participate. Sean O'Casey's drama The Shadow of a Gunman demonstrates the interaction between speech, writing, and power in a 1920's Dublin tenement. This essay traces the operation and effects of these relationships as they pertain to the intersections between colonial, national, patriarchal, and economic structures within the play and argues that access to or exclusion from the dominant discourse is directly related to the characters' positions, mobility, and ability to exercise power within these structures.