Pilar Villar Argaiz - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Pilar Villar Argaiz
An Sionnach: A Journal of Literature, Culture, and the Arts
Studies in Honour of Neil Mclaren a Man For All Seasons 2008 Isbn 978 84 338 4882 6 Pags 363 370, 2008
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a major figure in modern literature, is concerned in his work with su... more Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a major figure in modern literature, is concerned in his work with suffering, powerlessness, and endurance. For him the world is always old, shabby and sick, and it is urgent for him to analyse his characters’ symptoms, the motives that prolong existence, the principles that inhabit and shape even a dying organism. For many readers the Irishman Beckett is the writer who best shows this human sadness. From Murphy (1938) through to How It Is (1961) Beckett uses first-person narrators to describe the interior feelings of lonely souls. But, despite the atmosphere of loneliness and futility in all his writings, there is always a positive aspect, and survival is always important in Beckett’s work. In this essay, I will demonstrate that not everything is anguish and despair for Beckett’s characters, and that salvation is perhaps the key word of the author’s oeuvre, in particular his plays, which are often mis-called ‘pessimistic’ plays. I will particularly focus on Waiting for Godot (1952) and Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), with a view to show that there is always a glimmer of hopeful light just below the dull surface. I will also analyse briefly two of his most representative prose works, Molloy (1950) and The Unnamable (1960), in order to analyse how Beckett deals with the subject of despair and the will to survive in spite of that despair.
Para Por Y Sobre Luis Quereda 2010 Isbn 978 84 338 5170 3 Pags 693 708, 2010
Los Feminismos Como Herramientas De Cambio Social Vol 2 2007 Isbn 978 84 8384 000 9 Pags 235 250, 2007
Acceso de usuarios registrados. Acceso de usuarios registrados Usuario Contraseña. ...
De Habitaciones Propias Y Otros Espacios Conquistados Estudios Sobre Mujeres Y Literatura En Lengua Inglesa En Homenaje a Blanca Lopez Roman 2006 Isbn 84 338 3946 2 Pags 171 188, 2006
Revista Canaria De Estudios Ingleses, 2014
Toledano Buendía (ULL). SUBMISSION INFORMATION RCEI invites contributions of articles in such fie... more Toledano Buendía (ULL). SUBMISSION INFORMATION RCEI invites contributions of articles in such fields as linguistics, literature, critical theory, history, and cultural studies within the English Philology. Manuscript submissions, presented in English between 4,500 and 5,500 words, should conform to the guidelines found in the latest MLA Style Manual. For specific instructions on style contact the editorial office. Authors are expected to send their contributions as an attachment to rceing@ull.es and mail three double-spaced, printed copies with wide margins. Short abstracts (about 100 words) in English and Spanish are required, along with the key words (4-8) of the essay in both languages. The Editorial Committee reserves the right to introduce stylistic changes and to adjust illustrations. Further details on submissions: http://webpages. ull.es/users/rceing/submissions.html. Any acknowledgments must appear as an initial, unnumbered note. Footnotes, numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript, must be, in the case of quoted material, after the punctuation mark (indented quotes) or the quotation marks. Digressive or excessively lengthy footnotes should be avoided. Subsequent references to a previously cited work require only the author's last name but in the case of previous citations to more than one work by the same author, a title must appear (as is clear, op.cit. is not to be used). Each contributor should send a note stating specifically his/her manuscript is only being considered for publication by Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses. Authors may republish their own material, provided such republication provides due acknowledgment.
Odisea Revista De Estudios Ingleses, 2005
I met Theo in his last visit to Granada in 1998. It wasn’t, nevertheless, his only trip to Andalu... more I met Theo in his last visit to Granada in 1998. It wasn’t, nevertheless, his only trip to Andalucía. His fascination for Lorca had prompted numerous journeys to the South of Spain. Since then, we have maintained a friendship which has been highly sustaining and gratifying for me. His overwhelming personality and overpowering charisma, as well as his literary interests, forged my initial relationship with Irish poetry. This brief section is not only a recognition for his many personal attributes, but also for his admirable poetic work, a reflection of a contemporary Ireland which is aware of its collective history of violence and displacement, but opened, after decades of seclusion, to the European context.
If Art has a Kind of Function at all, it is to Help us to Understand what we are doing here: An Interview with Marina Carr”, 2019
This interview was conducted on occasion of Marina Carr’s visit to the University of Granada in F... more This interview was conducted on occasion of Marina Carr’s visit to the University of Granada in February 2018, as guest writer to the III International Seminar of Irish Studies. Her visit was funded through the Irish Itinerary Programme offered by EFACIS (European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies). The conversation – conducted by Pilar Villar-Argáiz and Marta Alfonso Caballero – followed Carr’s public reading of two of her most recognized plays: By the Bog of Cats (1998) and Woman and Scarecrow (2006). In this interview, Carr talks about these two plays in relation to relevant topics, ranging from her rewriting of Greek mythology and the impact of religion in contemporary Ireland, to the relationship between feminism and literature, her portrayal of passionate women, and the influence that literary predecessors have exerted in her work.
"Making History, Transforming Language: Eavan Boland’s Legacy in Ireland and Beyond”. Nexus AEDEAN 2020.1. (General Editor: Antonio Ballesteros) ;. Número: 9 (ISSN: 1697-4646). https://aedean.org/wp-content/uploads/nexus-2020-01-1.pdf. pages: 21-27. 2020, 2020
Tribute to Eavan Boland; overview of her career and achievements as Ireland's leading poet
Entre la creación y el aula: Estudios en honor de Profesor Manuel Villar Raso, en Pilar Villar Argáiz, Rosa Morillas Sánchez, Mauricio Aguilera Linde (eds); ISBN: 978-84-338-4576-4 Editorial Universidad de Granada, pp. 129-144, 2007
Ever since the publication of his debut work in 1996, Angela’s Ashes, McCourt has achieved an ast... more Ever since the publication of his debut work in 1996, Angela’s Ashes, McCourt has achieved an astonishing popular and critical success in America. This memoir of an impoverished Irish childhood in Limerick sold more than 27,000 copies, and it has won its author numerous awards and prizes, the most prestigious one being the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Unsurprisingly, the novel quickly became a bestseller in the United States, and it was featured for more than fifty weeks in the list of The New York Times Book Review. Indeed, his work has had a tremendous reception in the United States: American publishing companies have opened their doors to his later memoirs, and to the different collections of Irish mythology, genealogy, and history in which he has participated. Even though McCourt didn’t reach his success until he was 66 years old, one notes how quickly and fervently he has ascended to the highest ranks within the American literary panorama. In this article, I will focus on two intrinsically related lines of inquiry concerning the international success of Angela’s Ashes: First, why this book has become so popular in the United States. And second, what its success reveals about the American readership which consumes and sponsors it. It is my contention that Ireland’s history as a colonized and now postcolonial country is an important contributory factor to the success of McCourt’s memoir in the States, as it satisfies the increasing consumer demand for ‘exotic’ and ‘different’ stories that record a native ‘authenticity’.
New Voices in Irish Criticism: The Theoretical Turn (Studies in Irish Literature), en Cathy McGlynn and Paula Murphy (eds) ; ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-5363-0; ISBN-10: 0-7734-5363-6 Edwin Mellen Press, pp. 37-54, 2007
Cuerpos de Mujer: Miradas, Representaciones e Identidades, en Muñoz Muñoz, Ana María; Gregorio Gil, Carmen; Sánchez Espinosa, Adelina (eds); ISBN: 978-84-338-4556-6 Colección Feminae, pp. 381-402, 2007
Este artículo estudia la configuración de la identidad femenina en la obra de Eavan Boland, proba... more Este artículo estudia la configuración de la identidad femenina en la obra de Eavan Boland, probablemente una de las poetas contemporáneas más relevantes de Irlanda. La poesía de Boland ha impulsado a toda una generación de escritoras que definen a la mujer como creadora activa, no como una figura decorativa o sujeto pasivo, tal como algunos cánones del nacionalismo han fomentado. Mi objetivo es descifrar cómo en obras tales como In Her Own Image (1980), Boland establece una estrecha conexión entre sexualidad, creatividad artística e identidad femenina. Trayendo a colación los postulados teóricos que se desprenden de las teorías de Cixous e Irigaray, cuyos trabajos son representativos del feminismo francés, demostraré cómo Boland utiliza el cuerpo de la mujer con vistas a subvertir la tradición poética irlandesa que ha heredado. Dicha selección temática le permite desmantelar algunas idealizaciones convencionales de las mujeres en la literatura nacional, y criticar toda una tradición androcéntrica que ha ocultado y calificado como pecaminosas las experiencias sexuales de la mujer.
Studies in Honor of Neil McClaren, en Ángeles Linde López, Juan Santana Lario y Celia Wallhead (eds); ISBN: 978-84-338-4882-6 Universidad de Granada, pp. 363-370, 2008
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a major figure in modern literature, is concerned in his work with su... more Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a major figure in modern literature, is concerned in his work with suffering, powerlessness, and endurance. For him the world is always old, shabby and sick, and it is urgent for him to analyse his characters’ symptoms, the motives that prolong existence, the principles that inhabit and shape even a dying organism. For many readers the Irishman Beckett is the writer who best shows this human sadness. From Murphy (1938) through to How It Is (1961) Beckett uses first-person narrators to describe the interior feelings of lonely souls. But, despite the atmosphere of loneliness and futility in all his writings, there is always a positive aspect, and survival is always important in Beckett’s work. In this essay, I will demonstrate that not everything is anguish and despair for Beckett’s characters, and that salvation is perhaps the key word of the author’s oeuvre, in particular his plays, which are often mis-called ‘pessimistic’ plays. I will particularly focus on Waiting for Godot (1952) and Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), with a view to show that there is always a glimmer of hopeful light just below the dull surface. I will also analyse briefly two of his most representative prose works, Molloy (1950) and The Unnamable (1960), in order to analyse how Beckett deals with the subject of despair and the will to survive in spite of that despair.
The Irish Knot: Essays on Imaginary/Real Ireland, en María José Carrera, Anunciación Carrera, Enrique Cámara, Celsa Dapía (eds); Universidad de Valladolid, pp. 267-277, 2008
This paper will analyse from a postcolonial perspective Seamus Deane’s novel Reading in the Dark.... more This paper will analyse from a postcolonial perspective Seamus Deane’s novel Reading in the Dark. In this novel, a young nameless narrator looks back on his childhood years in the 1940s and 50s in Derry, a troubled town on the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In particular, I will focus on how the protagonist constantly intersects, with a subversive project in mind, imaginary, legendary, and real stories in his conception of Ireland. Local myths, folklore and superstition play an essential role in the novel, as observed in the regular appearance of ghosts and fairies. These fantastic stories are intermingled with local events that have a dramatic effect on the narrator’s family, and also with more public events, such as the Catholic uprising in Derry during the period of the Civil War. In its fusion of realism and fantasy, Reading in the Dark comes surprisingly close to the technique of magic realism, so common in postcolonial literature (as observed in García Márquez’s and Rushdie’s novels). By recurring to this strategy, Deane is able to be highly subversive. First of all, the child in the novel constantly crosses those apparently fix boundaries that separate historical (and national) narratives from legendary tales. By doing so, he portrays both types of narrations as imaginary constructions, as Benedic Anderson (1983) would argue, inventions whose existence depends on ‘cultural fictions’ that defend and legitimize them. Secondly, by mingling the bizarre and the plausible so that they become, at times, indistinguishable, Deane questions not only the authenticity of master imperialist and nationalist narratives, but also the very act of representation: how to record in a ‘real’ and exemplary mode an Irish community that have never before been represented properly.
Para, por y sobre Luis Quereda. Eds. Marta Falces Sierra, Encarnación Hidalgo Tenorio, Juan Santana Lario y Salvador Valera Hernández; ISBN: 978-84-338-5170-3 Universidad de Granada, pages: 693-705 , 2010
This article revaluates Eavan Boland’s work in the light of postcolonialism by drawing on the the... more This article revaluates Eavan Boland’s work in the light of postcolonialism by drawing on the theoretical claims of Bhabha, Said, and Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin. Many of the strategies of decolonisation they find in postcolonial literary productions surface in her poetry: reclaiming a history previously unrecognised by imaginatively recreating it; the production of alternative poetic representations to those offered by authoritarian discourses; the way in which exile, migrancy, and hybridity are combined to resist the binary politics of imperialism and nationalism; and finally, the subversive use of the imperialist language. This article focuses on this last strategy of decolonisation. In its discussion of poems such as “An Irish Childhood in England: 1951”, “Witness”, “A Habitable Grief” and “The Mother Tongue”, it shows how Boland carves out new and subversive territories within the English language for herself. Her “appropriation” of the imperialist language allows her to dismantle authoritarian (imperialist and nationalist) discourses, occupying a productive space where new decolonising identities can emerge.
In the Wake of the Tiger: Irish Studies in the Twenty-First Century. Eds. David Clark y Rubén Jarazo; Netbiblio, pp. 47-68. ISBN: 978-84-9745-547-3, 2010
Glocal Ireland: Current Perspectives on Literature and the Visual Arts. Eds. Marisol Morales Ladrón y Juan Francisco Elices Agudo; Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.100-117 ISBN (10): 1-4438-2979-X; ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2979-3 , 2011
Meehan’s work reflects current debates concerning the uneven and contradictory effects of globali... more Meehan’s work reflects current debates concerning the uneven and contradictory effects of globalization in the Irish context. First of all, she sees them as leading to environmental destruction and the birth of a new middle-class driven by capitalist interests and the commodification of everything. Secondly, this poet’s scathing critique is also simultaneously counteracted by her belief that this new area is a source of optimism, as it undermines parochialism and enables spiritual “connectedness” (interview with O’Halloran and Maloy 2002: 5). In this sense, Meehan’s stance on globalization is at once critical and celebratory.
This article explores how both contrasting views of globalization are reflected in her work, and highlights Meehan’s positive stance on the new global culture. Her poetry is shown to be both transcultural and transnational. The influence that American writers have on her work and the mixture of Western and Asian religious traditions, in particular Catholicism and Buddhism, demonstrate her belief in the subversive potential of cultural appropriation and cross-cultural encounters, and is thus a clear sign of her poetry’s global textuality. Embracing the liberal secular values of her contemporary reality, Meehan perceives Buddhism as an enabling spiritual tradition which allows her to transcend identity demarcations, in her aspiration to establish a holy communion with the whole universe. This holistic view also shows the influence in her work of American writers such as Emerson and Whitman, particularly in respect to her Transcendentalist beliefs about Nature and the role of the poet as a communal, democratic voice.
Into Another’s Skin: Selected Essays in Honour of María Luisa Dañobeita. Eds. Mauricio Aguilera, Mª José de la Torre y Laura Torres Zúñiga. Universidad de Granada, pp. 85-95 , 2012
This article focuses on Edna O'Brien's representation in her short fiction of Irish women's exper... more This article focuses on Edna O'Brien's representation in her short fiction of Irish women's experiences during the 1940s and 1950s (the time of Eamon de Valera's Ireland). In particular, it examines the emotional paralysis and entrapment experienced by her female characters in the enclosed and bigoted setting of a small Irish village. O'Brien usually presents women as victims of a patriarchal society, always subjected to the pressure of restrictive gendered expectations. In particular, nationalism and religion are consistently depicted in her fiction as powerful ideologies determining women's role in their rural communities.
An Sionnach: A Journal of Literature, Culture, and the Arts
Studies in Honour of Neil Mclaren a Man For All Seasons 2008 Isbn 978 84 338 4882 6 Pags 363 370, 2008
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a major figure in modern literature, is concerned in his work with su... more Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a major figure in modern literature, is concerned in his work with suffering, powerlessness, and endurance. For him the world is always old, shabby and sick, and it is urgent for him to analyse his characters’ symptoms, the motives that prolong existence, the principles that inhabit and shape even a dying organism. For many readers the Irishman Beckett is the writer who best shows this human sadness. From Murphy (1938) through to How It Is (1961) Beckett uses first-person narrators to describe the interior feelings of lonely souls. But, despite the atmosphere of loneliness and futility in all his writings, there is always a positive aspect, and survival is always important in Beckett’s work. In this essay, I will demonstrate that not everything is anguish and despair for Beckett’s characters, and that salvation is perhaps the key word of the author’s oeuvre, in particular his plays, which are often mis-called ‘pessimistic’ plays. I will particularly focus on Waiting for Godot (1952) and Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), with a view to show that there is always a glimmer of hopeful light just below the dull surface. I will also analyse briefly two of his most representative prose works, Molloy (1950) and The Unnamable (1960), in order to analyse how Beckett deals with the subject of despair and the will to survive in spite of that despair.
Para Por Y Sobre Luis Quereda 2010 Isbn 978 84 338 5170 3 Pags 693 708, 2010
Los Feminismos Como Herramientas De Cambio Social Vol 2 2007 Isbn 978 84 8384 000 9 Pags 235 250, 2007
Acceso de usuarios registrados. Acceso de usuarios registrados Usuario Contraseña. ...
De Habitaciones Propias Y Otros Espacios Conquistados Estudios Sobre Mujeres Y Literatura En Lengua Inglesa En Homenaje a Blanca Lopez Roman 2006 Isbn 84 338 3946 2 Pags 171 188, 2006
Revista Canaria De Estudios Ingleses, 2014
Toledano Buendía (ULL). SUBMISSION INFORMATION RCEI invites contributions of articles in such fie... more Toledano Buendía (ULL). SUBMISSION INFORMATION RCEI invites contributions of articles in such fields as linguistics, literature, critical theory, history, and cultural studies within the English Philology. Manuscript submissions, presented in English between 4,500 and 5,500 words, should conform to the guidelines found in the latest MLA Style Manual. For specific instructions on style contact the editorial office. Authors are expected to send their contributions as an attachment to rceing@ull.es and mail three double-spaced, printed copies with wide margins. Short abstracts (about 100 words) in English and Spanish are required, along with the key words (4-8) of the essay in both languages. The Editorial Committee reserves the right to introduce stylistic changes and to adjust illustrations. Further details on submissions: http://webpages. ull.es/users/rceing/submissions.html. Any acknowledgments must appear as an initial, unnumbered note. Footnotes, numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript, must be, in the case of quoted material, after the punctuation mark (indented quotes) or the quotation marks. Digressive or excessively lengthy footnotes should be avoided. Subsequent references to a previously cited work require only the author's last name but in the case of previous citations to more than one work by the same author, a title must appear (as is clear, op.cit. is not to be used). Each contributor should send a note stating specifically his/her manuscript is only being considered for publication by Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses. Authors may republish their own material, provided such republication provides due acknowledgment.
Odisea Revista De Estudios Ingleses, 2005
I met Theo in his last visit to Granada in 1998. It wasn’t, nevertheless, his only trip to Andalu... more I met Theo in his last visit to Granada in 1998. It wasn’t, nevertheless, his only trip to Andalucía. His fascination for Lorca had prompted numerous journeys to the South of Spain. Since then, we have maintained a friendship which has been highly sustaining and gratifying for me. His overwhelming personality and overpowering charisma, as well as his literary interests, forged my initial relationship with Irish poetry. This brief section is not only a recognition for his many personal attributes, but also for his admirable poetic work, a reflection of a contemporary Ireland which is aware of its collective history of violence and displacement, but opened, after decades of seclusion, to the European context.
If Art has a Kind of Function at all, it is to Help us to Understand what we are doing here: An Interview with Marina Carr”, 2019
This interview was conducted on occasion of Marina Carr’s visit to the University of Granada in F... more This interview was conducted on occasion of Marina Carr’s visit to the University of Granada in February 2018, as guest writer to the III International Seminar of Irish Studies. Her visit was funded through the Irish Itinerary Programme offered by EFACIS (European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies). The conversation – conducted by Pilar Villar-Argáiz and Marta Alfonso Caballero – followed Carr’s public reading of two of her most recognized plays: By the Bog of Cats (1998) and Woman and Scarecrow (2006). In this interview, Carr talks about these two plays in relation to relevant topics, ranging from her rewriting of Greek mythology and the impact of religion in contemporary Ireland, to the relationship between feminism and literature, her portrayal of passionate women, and the influence that literary predecessors have exerted in her work.
"Making History, Transforming Language: Eavan Boland’s Legacy in Ireland and Beyond”. Nexus AEDEAN 2020.1. (General Editor: Antonio Ballesteros) ;. Número: 9 (ISSN: 1697-4646). https://aedean.org/wp-content/uploads/nexus-2020-01-1.pdf. pages: 21-27. 2020, 2020
Tribute to Eavan Boland; overview of her career and achievements as Ireland's leading poet
Entre la creación y el aula: Estudios en honor de Profesor Manuel Villar Raso, en Pilar Villar Argáiz, Rosa Morillas Sánchez, Mauricio Aguilera Linde (eds); ISBN: 978-84-338-4576-4 Editorial Universidad de Granada, pp. 129-144, 2007
Ever since the publication of his debut work in 1996, Angela’s Ashes, McCourt has achieved an ast... more Ever since the publication of his debut work in 1996, Angela’s Ashes, McCourt has achieved an astonishing popular and critical success in America. This memoir of an impoverished Irish childhood in Limerick sold more than 27,000 copies, and it has won its author numerous awards and prizes, the most prestigious one being the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Unsurprisingly, the novel quickly became a bestseller in the United States, and it was featured for more than fifty weeks in the list of The New York Times Book Review. Indeed, his work has had a tremendous reception in the United States: American publishing companies have opened their doors to his later memoirs, and to the different collections of Irish mythology, genealogy, and history in which he has participated. Even though McCourt didn’t reach his success until he was 66 years old, one notes how quickly and fervently he has ascended to the highest ranks within the American literary panorama. In this article, I will focus on two intrinsically related lines of inquiry concerning the international success of Angela’s Ashes: First, why this book has become so popular in the United States. And second, what its success reveals about the American readership which consumes and sponsors it. It is my contention that Ireland’s history as a colonized and now postcolonial country is an important contributory factor to the success of McCourt’s memoir in the States, as it satisfies the increasing consumer demand for ‘exotic’ and ‘different’ stories that record a native ‘authenticity’.
New Voices in Irish Criticism: The Theoretical Turn (Studies in Irish Literature), en Cathy McGlynn and Paula Murphy (eds) ; ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-5363-0; ISBN-10: 0-7734-5363-6 Edwin Mellen Press, pp. 37-54, 2007
Cuerpos de Mujer: Miradas, Representaciones e Identidades, en Muñoz Muñoz, Ana María; Gregorio Gil, Carmen; Sánchez Espinosa, Adelina (eds); ISBN: 978-84-338-4556-6 Colección Feminae, pp. 381-402, 2007
Este artículo estudia la configuración de la identidad femenina en la obra de Eavan Boland, proba... more Este artículo estudia la configuración de la identidad femenina en la obra de Eavan Boland, probablemente una de las poetas contemporáneas más relevantes de Irlanda. La poesía de Boland ha impulsado a toda una generación de escritoras que definen a la mujer como creadora activa, no como una figura decorativa o sujeto pasivo, tal como algunos cánones del nacionalismo han fomentado. Mi objetivo es descifrar cómo en obras tales como In Her Own Image (1980), Boland establece una estrecha conexión entre sexualidad, creatividad artística e identidad femenina. Trayendo a colación los postulados teóricos que se desprenden de las teorías de Cixous e Irigaray, cuyos trabajos son representativos del feminismo francés, demostraré cómo Boland utiliza el cuerpo de la mujer con vistas a subvertir la tradición poética irlandesa que ha heredado. Dicha selección temática le permite desmantelar algunas idealizaciones convencionales de las mujeres en la literatura nacional, y criticar toda una tradición androcéntrica que ha ocultado y calificado como pecaminosas las experiencias sexuales de la mujer.
Studies in Honor of Neil McClaren, en Ángeles Linde López, Juan Santana Lario y Celia Wallhead (eds); ISBN: 978-84-338-4882-6 Universidad de Granada, pp. 363-370, 2008
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a major figure in modern literature, is concerned in his work with su... more Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a major figure in modern literature, is concerned in his work with suffering, powerlessness, and endurance. For him the world is always old, shabby and sick, and it is urgent for him to analyse his characters’ symptoms, the motives that prolong existence, the principles that inhabit and shape even a dying organism. For many readers the Irishman Beckett is the writer who best shows this human sadness. From Murphy (1938) through to How It Is (1961) Beckett uses first-person narrators to describe the interior feelings of lonely souls. But, despite the atmosphere of loneliness and futility in all his writings, there is always a positive aspect, and survival is always important in Beckett’s work. In this essay, I will demonstrate that not everything is anguish and despair for Beckett’s characters, and that salvation is perhaps the key word of the author’s oeuvre, in particular his plays, which are often mis-called ‘pessimistic’ plays. I will particularly focus on Waiting for Godot (1952) and Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), with a view to show that there is always a glimmer of hopeful light just below the dull surface. I will also analyse briefly two of his most representative prose works, Molloy (1950) and The Unnamable (1960), in order to analyse how Beckett deals with the subject of despair and the will to survive in spite of that despair.
The Irish Knot: Essays on Imaginary/Real Ireland, en María José Carrera, Anunciación Carrera, Enrique Cámara, Celsa Dapía (eds); Universidad de Valladolid, pp. 267-277, 2008
This paper will analyse from a postcolonial perspective Seamus Deane’s novel Reading in the Dark.... more This paper will analyse from a postcolonial perspective Seamus Deane’s novel Reading in the Dark. In this novel, a young nameless narrator looks back on his childhood years in the 1940s and 50s in Derry, a troubled town on the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In particular, I will focus on how the protagonist constantly intersects, with a subversive project in mind, imaginary, legendary, and real stories in his conception of Ireland. Local myths, folklore and superstition play an essential role in the novel, as observed in the regular appearance of ghosts and fairies. These fantastic stories are intermingled with local events that have a dramatic effect on the narrator’s family, and also with more public events, such as the Catholic uprising in Derry during the period of the Civil War. In its fusion of realism and fantasy, Reading in the Dark comes surprisingly close to the technique of magic realism, so common in postcolonial literature (as observed in García Márquez’s and Rushdie’s novels). By recurring to this strategy, Deane is able to be highly subversive. First of all, the child in the novel constantly crosses those apparently fix boundaries that separate historical (and national) narratives from legendary tales. By doing so, he portrays both types of narrations as imaginary constructions, as Benedic Anderson (1983) would argue, inventions whose existence depends on ‘cultural fictions’ that defend and legitimize them. Secondly, by mingling the bizarre and the plausible so that they become, at times, indistinguishable, Deane questions not only the authenticity of master imperialist and nationalist narratives, but also the very act of representation: how to record in a ‘real’ and exemplary mode an Irish community that have never before been represented properly.
Para, por y sobre Luis Quereda. Eds. Marta Falces Sierra, Encarnación Hidalgo Tenorio, Juan Santana Lario y Salvador Valera Hernández; ISBN: 978-84-338-5170-3 Universidad de Granada, pages: 693-705 , 2010
This article revaluates Eavan Boland’s work in the light of postcolonialism by drawing on the the... more This article revaluates Eavan Boland’s work in the light of postcolonialism by drawing on the theoretical claims of Bhabha, Said, and Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin. Many of the strategies of decolonisation they find in postcolonial literary productions surface in her poetry: reclaiming a history previously unrecognised by imaginatively recreating it; the production of alternative poetic representations to those offered by authoritarian discourses; the way in which exile, migrancy, and hybridity are combined to resist the binary politics of imperialism and nationalism; and finally, the subversive use of the imperialist language. This article focuses on this last strategy of decolonisation. In its discussion of poems such as “An Irish Childhood in England: 1951”, “Witness”, “A Habitable Grief” and “The Mother Tongue”, it shows how Boland carves out new and subversive territories within the English language for herself. Her “appropriation” of the imperialist language allows her to dismantle authoritarian (imperialist and nationalist) discourses, occupying a productive space where new decolonising identities can emerge.
In the Wake of the Tiger: Irish Studies in the Twenty-First Century. Eds. David Clark y Rubén Jarazo; Netbiblio, pp. 47-68. ISBN: 978-84-9745-547-3, 2010
Glocal Ireland: Current Perspectives on Literature and the Visual Arts. Eds. Marisol Morales Ladrón y Juan Francisco Elices Agudo; Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.100-117 ISBN (10): 1-4438-2979-X; ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2979-3 , 2011
Meehan’s work reflects current debates concerning the uneven and contradictory effects of globali... more Meehan’s work reflects current debates concerning the uneven and contradictory effects of globalization in the Irish context. First of all, she sees them as leading to environmental destruction and the birth of a new middle-class driven by capitalist interests and the commodification of everything. Secondly, this poet’s scathing critique is also simultaneously counteracted by her belief that this new area is a source of optimism, as it undermines parochialism and enables spiritual “connectedness” (interview with O’Halloran and Maloy 2002: 5). In this sense, Meehan’s stance on globalization is at once critical and celebratory.
This article explores how both contrasting views of globalization are reflected in her work, and highlights Meehan’s positive stance on the new global culture. Her poetry is shown to be both transcultural and transnational. The influence that American writers have on her work and the mixture of Western and Asian religious traditions, in particular Catholicism and Buddhism, demonstrate her belief in the subversive potential of cultural appropriation and cross-cultural encounters, and is thus a clear sign of her poetry’s global textuality. Embracing the liberal secular values of her contemporary reality, Meehan perceives Buddhism as an enabling spiritual tradition which allows her to transcend identity demarcations, in her aspiration to establish a holy communion with the whole universe. This holistic view also shows the influence in her work of American writers such as Emerson and Whitman, particularly in respect to her Transcendentalist beliefs about Nature and the role of the poet as a communal, democratic voice.
Into Another’s Skin: Selected Essays in Honour of María Luisa Dañobeita. Eds. Mauricio Aguilera, Mª José de la Torre y Laura Torres Zúñiga. Universidad de Granada, pp. 85-95 , 2012
This article focuses on Edna O'Brien's representation in her short fiction of Irish women's exper... more This article focuses on Edna O'Brien's representation in her short fiction of Irish women's experiences during the 1940s and 1950s (the time of Eamon de Valera's Ireland). In particular, it examines the emotional paralysis and entrapment experienced by her female characters in the enclosed and bigoted setting of a small Irish village. O'Brien usually presents women as victims of a patriarchal society, always subjected to the pressure of restrictive gendered expectations. In particular, nationalism and religion are consistently depicted in her fiction as powerful ideologies determining women's role in their rural communities.
The Edwin Mellen Press, 2007
This study provides an analysis of Eavan Boland's evolution as a Irish woman poet which is inform... more This study provides an analysis of Eavan Boland's evolution as a Irish woman poet which is informed by feminist and postcolonial ideologies. This work should appeal to scholars interested in Irish poetry, feminism, and postcolonialism. ideologies within modern Irish writing: feminism and postcolonialism. Its main objective is to analyze Boland's evolution as an Irish woman poet in her attempt to overcome marginalization as a postcolonial gendered subject. By bringing together postcolonial and feminist theorizations of identity, this study demonstrates how Boland gradually undermines the (presumably authentic) representations of 'woman' and 'nation' she has inherited. By describing 'Irishness' and 'womanhood' in terms of fluidity and hybridity, Boland's poetry exposes the constructedness of identity itself and allows the speaker to find a place freed from authoritative ideologies. In so doing, Boland manages to present a background where new decolonizing identities can emerge. In other words, it is here where she finds her way out as an outsider within an outsider's culture.
Academica Press, 2008
This monograph is an original and important contribution to the growing body of critical studies ... more This monograph is an original and important contribution to the growing body of critical studies devoted to one of Ireland's major living poets: Eavan Boland (see Haberstroh 1996; Hagen & Zelman 2005). It details the controversies that were prompted by the inclusion of Ireland in a postcolonial framework and then tests the application of an array of cogent theories and concepts to Boland's work. In an attempt to explore the richness and complexity of her poetry, Villar- Arg iz discusses the contradictory pulls in her desire to surpass, and yet at the same time epitomize, Irish nationality. Boland's remarkable achievement as a poet lies in her ability to stretch, by constant negotiations and re-appropriations, the borderlines of inherited definitions of nationality and femininity.
Chapters include: Re-examining the postcolonial: Gender and Irish studies, Towards an understanding of Boland's poetry as minority/ postcolonial discourse, A post-nationalist or a post-colonial writer?: Boland's revisionary stance on Mother Ireland, To a "third" space: Boland's imposed exile as a young child, The subaltern in Boland's poetry, Boland's mature exile in the US: An 'Orientalist' writer?
Manchester University Press, 2014
Literary visions of multicultural Ireland is the first full-length monograph in the market to add... more Literary visions of multicultural Ireland is the first full-length monograph in the market to address the impact that Celtic-Tiger immigration has exerted on the poetry, drama and fiction of contemporary Irish writers. The book opens with a lively, challenging preface by Prof. Declan Kiberd and is followed by eighteen essays by leading and prestigious scholars in the field of Irish studies from both sides of the Atlantic who address, in pioneering, differing and enriching ways, the emerging multiethnic character of Irish literature. Key areas of discussion are: What does it mean to be 'multicultural,' and what are the implications of this condition for contemporary Irish writers? How has literature in Ireland responded to inward migration? Have Irish writers reflected in their work (either explicitly or implicitly) the existence of migrant communities in Ireland? If so, are elements of Irish traditional culture and community maintained or transformed? What is the social and political efficacy of these intercultural artistic visions? While these issues have received sustained academic attention in literary contexts with longer traditions of migration, they have yet to be extensively addressed in Ireland today. The collection will thus be of interest to students and academics of contemporary literature as well as the general reader willing to learn more about Ireland and Irish culture. Overall, this book will become most useful to scholars working in Irish studies, contemporary Irish literature, multiculturalism, migration, globalisation and transculturality. Writers discussed include Hugo Hamilton, Roddy Doyle, Colum McCann, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Dermot Bolger, Chris Binchy, Michael O'Loughlin, Emer Martin and Kate O'Riordan, amongst others.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2018
This collection examines the presence of minority communities and dissident voices in Ireland bot... more This collection examines the presence of minority communities and dissident voices in Ireland both historically and in a contemporary framework. Accordingly, the contributions explore different facets of what we term “Irish minority and dissident identities,” ranging from political agitators drowned out by mainstream narratives of nationhood, to identities differentiated from the majority in terms of ethnicity, religion, class and health; and sexual minorities that challenge heteronormative perspectives on marriage, contraception, abortion, and divorce. At a moment when transnational democracy and the rights of minorities seem to be at risk, a book of this nature seems more pressing than ever. In different ways, the essays gathered here remind us of the importance of ‘rethinking’ nationhood, by a process of denaturalisation of the supremacy of white heterosexual structures.
"The essays here collected suggest powerfully that there are now many Irelands-within-Ireland----the nation has discovered that the best way of intensifying its identity is to multiply it. There will always be hidden Irelands in need of rediscovery but quite a few that were long inaudible are clearly heard in this challenging book". Declan Kiberd, Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame
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"This probing and wide-ranging collection of essays questions Irish homogeneity and depicts numerous modes of cultural and political dissidence, past and present. It makes a passionate case for inclusiveness and interculturalism by demonstrating the links between the battles for justice for former Magdalenes, campaigns for abortion rights and the recognition of gay and trans identities and the side-lining of Muslims and other migrants, and the occlusion of asylum seekers in direct provision centres". Anne Fogarty, Professor of James Joyce Studies, University College Dublin