My question would be: what kin/category of single women, as they come in so many varieties. Just as a start, do you mean never married, not yet partnered, divorced (ex., Maeve Kelly's Necessary Treasons), widowed (Mary Lavin), sister-brother combos? farm women living alone (Eilis Ni Dhuibhne's Dancers Dancing as example for both of the latter?) Do nuns count as single women? For that one need look no further than one of the great Irish novels, in my estimation, Kate O'Brien's Land of Spices, but Kate O'Brien offers other kinds of single women, too. These just the beginnings of thoughts, but I do think that the category needs a lot of nuance, even within the "never married" sub-section?
Christine St. Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: The Women on Ireland Research Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Deirdre OByrne
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 11:50 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Single women in Irish literature
Another short story by Maeve Kelly: 'Journey Home'; see also 'The False God'. Both are in her Orange Horses short story collection.
Dr Deirdre O'Byrne
Lecturer in English
Department of English and Drama
Loughborough University
Leicestershire
LE11 3TU
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ea/staff/Academic%20Staff/Deirdre.html
Room QQ009 (John Hardie building)
--
Nottingham Irish Studies Group
www.nottinghamisg.org.uk
http://deirdremobyrne.wordpress.com/
________________________________________
From: The Women on Ireland Research Network [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Bernie Whelan [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 July 2013 14:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Single women in Irish literature
Territories of the Voice: Contemporary Stories by Irish Women Writers, Edited by Louise De Salvo, Kathleen Walsh D'Arcy & Katherine Hogan, Virago
1990 includes a few that might interest you including one of my all time favourites, Amnesty by Maeve Kelly. I wish I knew of more by her.
Bernadette Whelan
-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Byrne
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 11:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Single women in Irish literature
I would be very grateful for any recommendations from list members of examples of authors/books/short stories/plays that portray single women in Irish literature across the 20th century or a critical analysis of the same; particularly women who are 'always single' or 'unmarried'. If possible I am looking for examples in which the single woman is the main character, narrator but all suggestions appreciated. Examples I have already include Brian Moore's 'The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne', William Trevor's 'The Ballroom of Romance', and portrayals of single women in the novels of Kate O'Brien and Mary Lavin. Most portrayals invoke stereotypes of single women as sad, lonely, vulnerable, depressed figures who settle for less and are unfavourably compared to those who marry and have children. The personal thoughts and desires of single women are variably focussed on loss of opportunity to love, to marry and the need to marry in order to be recognised by others as a woman (Moore/Trevor) or women's struggle to live a meaningful life as a single woman, contesting normative expectations of womanhood beyond the family frame (O'Brien).
Thank you
Anne Byrne
NUI, Galway
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