Women in Northern Ireland : cultural studies and material conditions

Sullivan is among those emerging feminist cultural critics who are breaking a critical silence: her study of fiction, films and plays by Northern Irish women not only charts new territory in Irish studies, it also provides a model for doing Irish cultural criticism.-Katherine Kirkpatrick, editor of Border Crossings: Irish Women Writers and National Identity In this examination of the cultural production of critically acclaimed women novelists, filmmakers, nonfiction writers and dramatists in Northern Ireland, Megan Sullivan insists that their work demonstrates that the Irish political struggle takes place in the material conditions of women’s lives-in the home, within the family, and on the street. While writers about Northern Ireland traditionally discuss public events, Sullivan argues that no permanent solution to the troubles will be possible until the public deals with such issues as housing, poverty, unemployment, and domestic violence. Because the plight of Northern Irish prisoners has been an important component of the peace process, she uses prison as a metaphor and as a point of departure to discuss patriarchy in general. Incorporating material that has been difficult to access for most North American readers, and focusing on issues that have only recently been studied, Women in Northern Ireland maps a new direction for the intersection of Irish studies and cultural studies. Megan Sullivan, assistant professor of humanities and rhetoric at Boston University, has published articles in Eire Ireland, New Hibernia Review, Irish Literary Supplement , and Irish Review . "Sullivan is among those emerging feminist cultural critics who are breaking a critical her study of fiction, films and plays by Northern Irish women not only charts new territory in Irish studies, it also provides a model for doing Irish cultural criticism."--Katherine Kirkpatrick, editor of Border Irish Women Writers and National Identity In this examination of the cultural production of critically acclaimed women novelists, filmmakers, nonfiction writers and dramatists in Northern Ireland, Megan Sullivan insists that their work demonstrates that the Irish political struggle takes place in the material conditions of womens lives--in the home, within the family, and on the street. While writers about Northern Ireland traditionally discuss public events, Sullivan argues that no permanent solution to the troubles will be possible until the public deals with such issues as housing, poverty, unemployment, and domestic violence. Because the plight of Northern Irish prisoners has been an important component of the peace process, she uses prison as a metaphor and as a point of departure to discuss patriarchy in general. Incorporating material that has been difficult to access for most North American readers, and focusing on issues that have only recently been studied, Women in Northern Ireland maps a new direction for the intersection of Irish studies and cultural studies. Megan Sullivan, assistant professor of humanities and rhetoric at Boston University, has published articles in Eire Ireland, New Hibernia Review, Irish Literary Supplement , and Irish Review . Table of Contents......Page 8 Preface ix......Page 10 Introduction: Cultural Studies and Material Conditions—(Some) Women in Northern Ireland 1......Page 12 1.Roisin McAliskey and the Discourse of Incarceration:Gendered Prison Narratives 17......Page 28 2.Nationalist Ideology and Materialist Politics: Mary Beckett’sGive Them Stones 39......Page 50 3.Maeve and Anne Devlin: Nationalism, Incarceration, andFeminist Film in Northern Ireland 66......Page 77 4.Feminist Film after Pat Murphy: Mother Ireland, Hush-A-ByeBaby, and The Visit 101......Page 111 5.“Politics, That’s the Nub of It”: Charabanc Theatre Companyand the (Collective) Economy of Production 137......Page 148 Conclusion: Women and a Lasting Peacein Northern Ireland 168......Page 179 Bibliography 179......Page 190 Index 189......Page 200 "In this examination of the cultural production of critically acclaimed women novelists, filmmakers, nonfiction writers and dramatists in Northern Ireland, Megan Sullivan insists that their work demonstrates that the Irish political struggle takes place in the material conditions of women's lives - in the home, within the family, and on the street."--BOOK JACKET. "Incorporating material that has been difficult to access for most North American readers, and focusing on issues that have only recently been studied, Women in Northern Ireland maps a new direction for the intersection of Irish studies and cultural studies."--BOOK JACKET. An examination of the cultural production of critically acclaimed women novelists, filmmakers, non-fiction writers and dramatists in Northern Ireland. The author demonstrates how the Irish political struggle takes place in the material conditions of women's lives.