Séan O’Casey: A Minor Literature? Plough and the Stars’ Pub Scene through Deleuze and Guattari's Perspective

Abstract

This work aims to discuss the pub scene of Séan O’Casey’s Plough and the Stars through Deleuze and Guattari's perspective on minor literature guiding light. Considering the colonial-rebellious context in which it was written, we could not analyze or comprehend the ambiance of the Easter Rising and its effects on the characters, as well as how they operate inside a pub setting, without contemplating the three characteristics of minor literature, which are: deterritorialization of language, connection of the individual to politics, and collective assemblage of enunciation. Understanding these features and how they are intimately present in Plough and the Stars, more specifically in the chosen scene, it is possible to assert whether or not they play an essential part in constructing the meaning of O’Casey’s literary work. Finally, going through the three points, we can discuss the possibility of the Irish pub as a new territory for those deterritorialized people — a distorted yet democratic space where the characters, despite being ordinary people, can discuss ideas and participate in social life.