Uninvolved parenting as presented in Marina Carr's the Mai and frank Mcguinness's the hanging gardens

Abstract EN

The present study examines the depiction of uninvolved parenting in two contemporary Irish plays; Marina Carr’s The Mai (1994) and Frank McGuinness’s The Hanging Gardens (2013).

Guided by Diana Baumrind’s Pillar Theory, the paper considers comprehensively three neglectful parental figures; a mother in Carr’s play and two parents (a mother and a father) in McGuinness’s play with particular emphasis on the fraught relationships between the three parental characters and their adult children as well as the destructive impact of neglectful parenting on parent-child relationship and the children’s outcomes.

The two playwrights focus on the strained relationships within the two families through recollections retrieved by the three forebears and their adult children, direct accusatory fingers at their parenting style, and highlight the destructive effects of their under involvement by showing their children as adults and by offering no resolution.

The study attempts to provide a critical analysis of the negligent parenting style adopted by the three stage forebears; its manifestations, causes and detrimental consequences.