Writers, artists, mothers: Author figures in the short fiction of Mary Lavin (original) (raw)

Narratives of internal exile in Mary Lavin's short stories

International Journal of English Studies, 2002

Paul Tabori's definition of exile and Michael Seidel's discussion of the "exilic mind" are the points of departure for this study of short stories by Mary Lavin. The stories deal with internal exile, meaning marginalisation within the local community or native country, due to that individual will is incompatible with pressure to conform to unwritten rules of society. The narratives of the stories strongly suggest that these characters are subversive according to the dominant ethos of the restrictive Catholic lreland that Lavin writes about. Women who do not fulfil their enforced social role of wife or mother and the restrictions of young widows feature in several stories. But some stories show that internal exile also affects men, Ieaving thern in a social vacuum. The novella "The Becker Wives" will be discussed at Iength as an explicit and striking narrative of internal exile on an individual and a social level.

Narratives of Interna1 Exile in Mary Lavin's Short Stories

2016

Paul Tabori's definition of exile and Michael Seidel's discussion of the "exilic mind " are the points of departure for this study of short stories by Mary Lavin. The stories deal with interna1 exile, meaning marginalisation within the local community or native country, due to that individual will is incompatible with pressure to conform to unwritten rules of society. The narratives of the stories strongly suggest that these characters are subversive according to the dominant ethos of the restrictive Catholic lreland that Lavin writes about. Women who do not fulfil their enforced social role of wife or mother and the restrictions of young widows feature in several stories. But some stories show that internal exile also affects men, Ieaving thern in a social vacuum. The novella "The Becker Wives " will be discussed at Iength as an explicit and striking narrative of internal exile on an individual and a social level.

The Rise of the Woman Writer

Irish Literature in Transition, 1830-1880: Volume 3, edited by Matthew Campbell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020)., 2020

Drawing on new archival research into book history, letters and periodical literature, this chapter explores the critical narratives around what it meant to be a woman writer between 1830 and 1880 via a focus on case studies of two Irish woman writers: Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849) and Mrs S. C. Hall (1800–1881). This focused approach allows a comprehensive placing of Irish women writers within the developing literary marketplace of their time and consideration of the extent to which the contemporary critical reception of their work has shaped subsequent scholarship. In doing so, the chapter uncovers a narrative of peaks and troughs, epitomised by periods of great esteem and critical disdain, and highlights the fluctuating patterns of visibility and invisibility of literary productions in the nineteenth century and beyond.

A Feminism of Their Own? : Irish Women's History and Contemporary Irish Women's Writing

For a long time, Irish women’s lives were strictly confined to the private domain, and women’s issues were largely silenced and hidden from public knowledge. Additionally, both Church and state maintained that women should hold a certain morality, particularly relating to areas of sexuality and reproduction. As a result, until relatively recently, Irish women’s issues remained largely ignored and therefore unremarked upon. This paper will examine two major areas in which Irish women’s lives have traditionally been repressed: women’s sexuality and domestic violence, both issues which were once considered taboo for open discussion. This paper will also discuss how these same issues are being represented in Irish chick lit novels, thus providing a frank and positive voice for these largely female issues and for the everyday experiences of women in Ireland.

Irish Women’s Fiction of the Twentieth Century: The Importance of Being Catholic

ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries, 2014

This paper explores the ways in which some of the best and most representative Irish women fiction writers of the twentieth century responded to the exigencies of Catholicism in their selected works. It also attempts to demonstrate how the treatment of Catholicism in Irish women’s fiction changed throughout the century. The body of texts that are examined in the paper span almost seventy years, from the early years of the independent Irish state to the turn-of-the-century Ireland, during which time both Irish society and the Irish Catholic Church underwent fundamental changes. How these authors tackle the relationship between the dominant religion and the shaping of woman’s identity, how they see the role of woman within the confines of Irish Catholicism, and to what extent their novels mirror the period in which they are written are the main issues which lie in the focus of the paper.