Border Crossings
Irish Women Writers and National Identities
Exploring two centuries of Irish women's writing, contributors from Ireland and the United States reveal these women's struggle against colonialism and the patriarchy
Writing in the shadows of Joyce and Yeats, Irish women have long contributed to the ongoing formation of Irish identities. Border Crossings secures for a largely overlooked body of writing its place in the Irish literary canon.
Ranging from consideration of early writers such as Maria Edgeworth and Sydney Owenson to recent feminist pamphlet wars. Border Crossings explores the connections between personal and national identities, politics and literary style, and gender and artistic vocation. Some essays focus on prominent writers such as Augusta Gregory and Eavan Boland, and others introduce readers to lesser-known voices such as Emily Lawless and Mary Beckett. Some also show how groups of women, such as upper-middle-class Catholics and lesbians, have used their writing to construct social goals. All help to revise the perception of historical and contemporary roles Irish women writers have played in shaping--and being shaped by--Irish history.
Border Crossings contributes to revising the perception of historical and contemporary roles Irish women writers have played in shaping, as well as being shaped by, Irish history. The essays themselves shape new ways of understanding their accomplishment as well as highlight writers whose works have been ignored, slighted, or too little noticed. '—Susan Shaw Sailer, West Virginia University
This impressive collection, covering a wide range of literature from the 18th century to the present, is an exciting and valuable contribution to Irish studies in general and to the study of Irish women writers in particular. These essays bring new approaches to bear on the ways Irish women writers negotiate the borders between nation and nationalism and are a welcome addition to the growing body of work on Irish women's writing.'
—John Rickard, Bucknell University
