A Pagan Place (novel)
 First edition | |
| Author | Edna O'Brien |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
Publication date | April 16, 1970 |
| Publication place | Ireland |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 223 pages |
| ISBN | 0-297-00027-6 |
A Pagan Place is a 1970 novel by Irish writer Edna O'Brien.[1][2] The book was first published on April 16, 1970, by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and follows a young girl in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1972 A Pagan Place was adapted into a stage production,[3] which received mixed reviews.[4]
Style
[edit]A Pagan Place is narrated in second person in its entirety. As Shahriyar Mansouri argues, such a "melodic" narratorial voice, presented through the mouthpiece of second-person narrator signifies a lost sense of identity and independence for the post-independence Irish women.[5] The only occasion when the narratorial voice appropriates the first person pronoun 'I', indicating its presence and self-recognition, comes at the end of the novel, where the unnamed, young female protagonist embarks on her journey of formation.
Reception
[edit]The Sydney Morning Herald praised the book's narrative, saying that it "flows along absorbingly without a line of direct dialogue".[6]
References
[edit]- ^ Ungerer, Miriam (Apr 19, 1970). "Story of Herself". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
- ^ Herman, David (Fall 1994). "Textual 'You' and double deixis in Edna O'Brien's 'A Pagan Place.'". Style. 28 (3): 378.
- ^ Barnes, Clive (January 31, 1974). "Stage: Edna O'Brien's 'Pagan Place'; Play About a Girlhood in Ireland Opens The Cast American Premiere Is Given in New Haven". New York Times. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
- ^ Hobson, Harold (Nov 10, 1972). "London's 'best new play in a long time'". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
- ^ Mansouri, Shahriyar (2013). "Against the Oedipal Politics of Formation in Edna O'Brien's A Pagan Place: 'Women do not Count, Neither Shall they be Counted'". Studi irlandesi. A Journal of Irish Studies. 3 (3): 335–354.
- ^ Curtin, Lorna (Dec 4, 1970). "Pagan Place By Edna O'brien". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 January 2013.