이 연구는 아일랜드의 대표적인 극작가 브라이언 프리엘의 흥미로운 작품『몰리 스위니』에 나타난 아일랜드의 포스트콜로니얼적인 요소들을 수발턴의 개념을 적용하여 여성과 남성, 영국과 아일랜드, 제국주의와 식민지, 지배자와 피지배자 등의 권력구조 속에서 파악하려는 시도이다.

현존하는 가장 위대한 아일랜드 극작가인 브라이언 프리엘 비평의 대부 분은 그의 작품을 현대아일랜드의 역사/문화적 맥락에 굳게 위치시키고 그 맥락 아래 서 연구를 진행해왔다. 따라서 이들 프리엘 연구의 의도하지 않았던 결과 중 하나는 그의 작품들을 아일랜드 안에 가두고 지역화시킴으로써 현대희곡의 주변에 머무르게 했다는 점이다. 본 연구는 프리엘의 대표작 중 하나인 「루나사에서 춤을」을 아일랜드 로부터 탈맥락화시키고 브레히트, 테네시 윌리엄즈, 체호프 등의 작가들과 연계시켜 트랜스내셔녈한 관점에서 재조명하려는 시도이다.

서평.

Brian Friel, who was born and raised in Northern Ireland, is called the best living Irish dramatist dealing with subjects focused on Ireland and its people in his plays. In Faith Healer(1979), one of his best plays, Friel dramatizes a faith healer's experiences. The three characters, Frank(faith healer), Grace(Frank's wife), Teddy(Frank's manager) recollect the experiences they shared while travelling to cure the sick in Scotland and Wales. Their monologues detail the same experiences but are very different, according to Friel, because each recalls their memories according to their own desires and needs. Memory is not always accurate and can be a fiction. Frank has the compulsion to transform all things around him into fiction. This ability is analogous to a writer's creative writing ability. Therefore, Frank is, in a sense, an artist. Frank performs his faith healing shows in front of the sick with anxiety as he is not sure whether a miracle will occur or not. Like a faith healer, a dramatist as an artist writes dramas with anxiety because he is not sure that he will be able to move his audience with a successful performance. Frank is not sure that he will be able to move his audience. Frank is not sure if he has an ability to cure with miracles or if he is a con man. Like a faith healer, an artist has the sense of being a con man because he is indebted from his predecessors' works. Only through his death can Frank stop the maddening questions such as "Am I a con man? or am I endowed with a unique gift?" Frank is like a metaphor for an artist. Friel, a dramatist, also has suffered from the agony of an artist and has been troubled by the scarcity of his creative works. Therefore Frank is a foil to Friel's autobiographical image.