ABSTRACT
This volume studies the manifestations of female trauma through the exploration of multiple wounds, inflicted on both body and mind (Caruth 1996, 3) and the soul of Irish women from Northern Ireland and the Republic within a contemporary context, and in literary works written at the turn of the twenty-first century and beyond. These artistic manifestations connect tradition and modernity, debunk myths, break the silence with the exposure of uncomfortable realities, dismantle stereotypes and reflect reality with precision. Women’s issues and female experiences depicted in contemporary fiction may provide an explanation for past and present gender dynamics, revealing a pathway for further renegotiation of gender roles and the achievement of equilibrium and equality between sexes. These works might help to seal and heal wounds both old and new and offer solutions to the quandaries of tomorrow.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|133 pages
Essays
chapter 3|11 pages
Trauma after a Life of Torture in Irish Magdalene Laundries
chapter 4|11 pages
Shattering the Moulds of Tradition
chapter 5|15 pages
Representations of Trauma, Memory and the Silencing of Irish Women
chapter 6|12 pages
Exposition of a Half-formed System
chapter 7|12 pages
Damaged Women
chapter 8|11 pages
Conditions of Homecoming
chapter 10|12 pages
Emma Donoghue's Hood and the Aesthetics of Existential Claustrophobia
part II|36 pages
Pieces of Creative Writing