Re-Claiming “A queen of women as of States”: Feminist Historiography as Dramaturgical Space in Lady Gregory’s Grania (1912), Kincora (1905/1909), and Dervorgrilla (1907)

This article[1] considers how Augusta, Lady Gregory, playwright and co-founder of Ireland’s Abbey Theatre, crafts a dramaturgy of feminist historiographic space across her folk-history trilogy, Grania, Kincora, and Dervorgilla. The article engages with scholars across Irish theatre history, spatial theory, and feminist theory to propose a new vision of a dramaturgy of feminist historiography in Gregory’s plays. Irish women artists and activists intentionally reclaimed and reimagined women from Irish folk history as a method of cultivating women’s space within the national and nationalist imaginations. In her reconceptualization of these histories for the stage, Gregory was envisioning an Irish national drama where women were center stage, and by extension, demonstrated the power of women’s presence within the greater cultural nationalist movement. [1] Research for this article is partially derived from my ongoing doctoral research at Trinity College Dublin under the supervision of Dr. Melissa Sihra.