‘The Good Terrorist(s)’? Interrogating Gender and Violence in Ann Devlin’s ‘Naming the Names’ and Anna Burns’ No Bones

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the depiction of IRA female volunteers in Ann Devlin's Naming the Names (1986) and Anna Burns' No Bones (2001) and to consider the relationship established between gender and violence in these texts. I investigate the extent to which the female terrorists portrayed conform to the mother, monster, whore paradigm identified by Laura Sjoberg and Caron Gentry (2007) in their study of women's violence in global politics and consider what differences, if any, are established with these characters' male counterparts. The ways in which both authors destabilise traditional gender stereotypes is also explored, as is the question of whether these texts might be considered as feminist fictions. 1