Of Bees, Fairies, and Women: Lisa Carey's Feminist and Parodical Rewriting of Tradition in The Stolen Child (2017)

Audrey Robitaillié

doi:10.37389/abei.v20i2.3199

Abstract

This article examines Lisa Carey’s recent novel, which offers a rewriting of both folkloric and Yeatsian traditions. The author reuses fairy beliefs, bee folklore, and religious traditions around Saint Brigid and Saint Gobnait, in contrast with the demands of modern life, to illustrate the antagonistic pulls on the protagonists. Through this rewriting of Irish folklore, she offers a feminist parody of tradition, in Linda Hutcheon’s sense of the word. The North American writer reuses Irish fairy beliefs to question the representation of motherhood through her character of Emer, and rewrites the legend of Saint Brigid, to turn her into a feminist model for the female protagonists. Keywords: Irish folklore; contemporary literature; parody; feminism; motherhood; fairies; changeling; Brigid.

Highlights

Lisa Carey’s portrayal of the imaginary St Brigid’s island in her novel The Stolen Child (2017)1 depicts a rural community where traditions are anchored deep and beliefs in the supernatural are myriad
The author reuses beliefs in the fairies, and the Otherworld, folklore around bees, and religious traditions linked to Saint Brigid,2 and her lesser-known counterpart Saint Gobnait, in contrast with the demands of modern life, to illustrate the antagonistic pulls on the protagonists
The goddess Brigid was said to be a daughter of the Dagda, the Irish god of abundance, and the creator of the caoineadh, keening (Bitel 2002; 224). She is sometimes seen as a form of sun goddess (Condren 66), a function that may connect her pagan representation to the customs related to Saint Brigid’s fire

Summary

Introduction

Lisa Carey’s portrayal of the imaginary St Brigid’s island in her novel The Stolen Child (2017) depicts a rural community where traditions are anchored deep and beliefs in the supernatural are myriad. The author reuses beliefs in the fairies, and the Otherworld, folklore around bees, and religious traditions linked to Saint Brigid, and her lesser-known counterpart Saint Gobnait, in contrast with the demands of modern life, to illustrate the antagonistic pulls on the protagonists Through this rewriting of Irish folklore, Carey offers a feminist parody of tradition, in Linda Hutcheon’s sense of the word. Quoting Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Hutcheon writes that “Much female writing today, aiming as it does to be both revisionary and revolutionary, is ‘parodic, duplicitous, extraordinarily sophisticated’” (2000; 46) This feminist stance is the one taken by Carey in her rewriting of Irish tradition in The Stolen Child. The author rewrites the religious tradition of Saint Brigid, merging it with that of Saint Gobnait, to turn them into feminist models for the female protagonists

Fairy beliefs and motherhood

The changeling paradox

Conclusion

Works Cited