“She had to start thinking like a man”: Women Writing Bodies in Contemporary Northern Irish Fiction

Abstract

Copyright (c) 2010 by Maeve Eileen Davey. This text may be archived and redistributed both in electronic form and in hard copy, provided that the author and journal are properly cited and no fee is charged for access. Abstract: Studies of representations of the body in literature have become so well established as to no longer require extensive explanation or justification as a mode of criticism but, nevertheless, the choice to apply this particular mode of reading to contemporary Northern Irish fiction cannot be glossed over without comment. The body still remains a vastly under theorised aspect of Irish writing in general. The body, however, is an area of particular relevance to Irish fiction and particularly relevant to contemporary Northern Irish fiction in its depictions of national conflict, negotiations with slippery concepts of national identity and ambivalence towards the prevailing conservative cultural and religious climate. In many respects Northern Ireland remains a predominantly conservative, theocratic society in which women are still traditionally associated with the home, marriage and motherhood. However, many contemporary Northern Irish women writers navigate occasions in which the domestic and public spheres come into contact and collision, or the liminal space between them. This article focuses on three novels in particular, which span different genres, two decades and both the intra- and post-conflict periods: Give Them Stones (1987) by Mary Beckett, Hidden Symptoms (1987) by Deirdre Madden and Sharon Owens' The Tavern on Maple Street (2005). Resumen: Los estudios de las representaciones del cuerpo en la literatura estan tan consolidados que su adopcion como modelo critico ya no requiere explicacion o justificacion alguna. No obstante, la aplicacion de este modo de lectura a la ficcion contemporanea de Irlanda del Norte aun requiere comentario puesto que el cuerpo sigue siendo un aspecto muy poco teorizado en la literatura irlandesa en general. Y sin embargo, es un area de especial importancia para la ficcion irlandesa y en particular para la ficcion contemporanea de Irlanda del Norte en lo que respecta a la representacion del conflicto nacional, el debate en torno al huidizo concepto de la identidad nacional y la actitud ambivalente hacia el conservador clima cultural y religioso imperante. En muchos aspectos, Irlanda del Norte sigue siendo una sociedad predominantemente conservadora y teocratica en la que las mujeres siguen estando tradicionalmente asociadas con la casa, el matrimonio y la maternidad. Sin embargo, muchas escritoras contemporaneas de Irlanda del Norte se mueven por ambitos en los que las esferas publica y domestica entran en contacto y colisionan. Este articulo se centra en tres novelas pertenecientes a diferentes generos, y cuya accion abarca dos decadas, durante y despues del conflicto: Give Them Stones (1987) de Mary Beckett, Hidden Symptoms (1987) de Deirdre Madden y The Tavern on Maple Street (2005) de Sharon Owens. Palabras clave: Escritura de mujeres, Irlanda del Norte, ficcion, genero, cuerpo.