ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC: MIGRATION, GENDER, AND SOCIETY IN CONTEMPORARY IRISH LITERATURE

Abstract

1.Ireland on MoveFor centuries, geographical movement in Ireland has been characterized by rural-urban transfer to be subsequently followed by overseas migration. Only recently has magnitude and persistence of this phenomenon been acknowledged in some official documents (Report of Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants, 2002; Global Irish: Ireland's Diaspora Policy, 2015). In meantime, abundant literature has examined Irish migration phenomenon from many different perspectives, though little interest has been shown in relation between female migration and place. Undoubtedly, this is complex issue that has deserved much academic attention (Gray, 2000; Martin, 1997; Ryan, 2001; Walter, 2004). More recently, it is lives of Irish women abroad and their implicit/explicit relations with their homeland that have been object of scholarly interest (Donkersloot, 2012; Harte, 2009; Miller, 2008; McDowell, 2014; O'Keeffe, 2013).Border crossing is significant decision with vital implications that do not affect men and women equally, as Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants (Government of Ireland, 2002) indicates. According to Walter (2004), USA was preferred choice of Irish women from early 19th century, whereas in early 20th century Britain became most popular destination. Later, flows to neighbor country became massive between 1950s and 1980s, trend that changed by end of last century when other European destinations became more attractive. These movements necessarily affect concepts of land and nation as of identity begins to multiply and diversify. Ideologically, feminine icons of Mother Church and Mother Ireland (or Erin) had been gaining ground since 19th century for nationalistic purposes, and from first decades of 20th century, women were actively interpellated as national subjects through identification with territory, soil, land and landscape (Gray, 1999: 205). At time, paintings, songs and discourses praised rural Irish woman who embodied the values of motherhood, tradition and stability (Nash, 1993: 47). According to Ingman, nations construct their identity around fixed concepts of gender (2007: 3), and Ireland was no exception as, for too many decades, social status of women was framed by institutions that served to oppress them one way or another. These institutions, identified as family and household structures, and employment and welfare policies, were also legally supported in 1937 Constitution. That Irish gendered project targeted women to limit their access to work and public in order to produce decent women inhabiting virtuous spaces (Crowley and Kitchin, 2008: 355). Symbolically, as new values of nation clung to homely rural landscape, virtuous Ireland became to be whereas other places such as urban spaces, or destinations such as Britain and USA were identified as materialistic and threatening (Ryan, 2001: 272-273). In this context, phenomenon of female migration necessarily implied break with particular social model and would involve menace to national construction of Irish Free State, as numerous debates in media at time demonstrate (Ryan, 2003). Furthermore, that sense of place which has been identified as a component of identity and psychic interiority (Martin, 1997: 92), has for long been disturbing for many Irish women too, as mixed feelings involving duty, love, anger, independence and sorrow have been detected in female migration reports (Ryan, 2008; Walter, 2004). Discomfort might be word for many women's experiences abroad who felt tension between an assimilated Irish cultural space and actual space of opportunities ahead. Contemporary Irish literature shows strong tendency to look backwards and evoke those Irish migrants' experiences, an issue that is witnessing much success at present in form of fictionalized lives of Irish migrant women. …