Feminism movements have questioned the notion of coherent identities in contemporary western societies. In particular, they hold that to consider a woman as a coherent and stable subject is contrary to feminist beliefs, as this refuses the multiplicity of cultural, social and political intersections within which this allegedly concrete array of women is constructed. According to Luce Irigaray and Judith Butler, individual identities are both socially and politically constructed. With this in mind, the objective of this thesis is to analyze Irish gender relations as represented in Anne Enrights contemporary work. In analyzing Enrights literary characters as representations of contemporary women, primarily with regard to motherhood, certain historical and cultural aspects specific to Ireland must be considered in order to understand how womens identities have been shaped by the political, religious, and social establishments in place from the turn of the century up to contemporary Irish society. This thesis argues that, in her literature, Enright defines her characters both tangentially and paradoxically thereby provoking a rupture in the established image of woman. Thus, she draws attention to the shift from the inner self to the external world in an aesthetic attempt to construct her own authentic space. This involves an aesthetic process in which the author uses narrative strategies to guide the reader on a circular-upward progression towards social self-awareness. The objective of Enrights literary texts is to guide the individual in a spiraling movement of thoughts which leads him or her to perceive a self-reflection in the narrative. Then, carried by the spiraling narrative, the outer social context of the narrative becomes involved with its inside world, promoting an elevation of the reader towards a self-awareness of his or her materiality immersed in human relations. / Os movimentos feministas têm questionado a postulação do conceito de identidades coerentes nas sociedades ocidentais contemporâneas pois, de acordo com tal ideia, considerar as mulheres como um sujeito coerente e estável significa ser contrário às crenças feministas, recusando a multiplicidade de interseções culturais, sociais e políticas nas quais o conjunto concreto de mulheres é construído. Segundo Luce Irigaray e Judith Butler, as identidades individuais são construídas social e politicamente. Tendo isso em mente, o objetivo desta tese é analisar as relações de gênero como representadas no trabalho da escritora contemporânea Anne Enright. Ao analisar as personagens literários de Enright como uma representação das mulheres atuais, principalmente no que diz respeito à maternidade, os aspectos históricos e culturais específicos da Irlanda devem ser considerados para entender como a identidade das mulheres foi moldada com base em um estabelecimento ideológico político, religioso e social desde a virada do século até os dias atuais. A hipótese é que, em sua literatura, Enright define seus personagens tangencialmente e paradoxalmente provocando uma ruptura na imagem das mulheres socialmente estabelecida. Assim, ela ilumina o movimento do eu interior para o mundo exterior em uma tentativa estética de construir seu próprio espaço. Isso significa um processo no qual a autora usa estratégias narrativas para orientar o leitor em uma tentativa ascendente para a autoconsciência social. O objetivo dos textos literários de Enright é o de guiar o indivíduo pelo movimento espiralado dos seus pensamentos e, em primeiro lugar, obter uma auto-reflexão através da narrativa que impulsiona o interior dos personagens para o exterior. Então, abrangido pela espiral, o contexto social envolve o mundo interior da narrativa, promovendo uma elevação do leitor para uma autoconsciência de sua materialidade imersa nas relações humanas.

Feminism movements have questioned the notion of coherent identities in contemporary western societies. In particular, they hold that to consider a woman as a coherent and stable subject is contrary to feminist beliefs, as this refuses the multiplicity of cultural, social and political intersections within which this allegedly concrete array of women is constructed. According to Luce Irigaray and Judith Butler, individual identities are both socially and politically constructed. With this in mind, the objective of this thesis is to analyze Irish gender relations as represented in Anne Enrights contemporary work. In analyzing Enrights literary characters as representations of contemporary women, primarily with regard to motherhood, certain historical and cultural aspects specific to Ireland must be considered in order to understand how womens identities have been shaped by the political, religious, and social establishments in place from the turn of the century up to contemporary Irish society. This thesis argues that, in her literature, Enright defines her characters both tangentially and paradoxically thereby provoking a rupture in the established image of woman. Thus, she draws attention to the shift from the inner self to the external world in an aesthetic attempt to construct her own authentic space. This involves an aesthetic process in which the author uses narrative strategies to guide the reader on a circular-upward progression towards social self-awareness. The objective of Enrights literary texts is to guide the individual in a spiraling movement of thoughts which leads him or her to perceive a self-reflection in the narrative. Then, carried by the spiraling narrative, the outer social context of the narrative becomes involved with its inside world, promoting an elevation of the reader towards a self-awareness of his or her materiality immersed in human relations. / Os movimentos feministas têm questionado a postulação do conceito de identidades coerentes nas sociedades ocidentais contemporâneas pois, de acordo com tal ideia, considerar as mulheres como um sujeito coerente e estável significa ser contrário às crenças feministas, recusando a multiplicidade de interseções culturais, sociais e políticas nas quais o conjunto concreto de mulheres é construído. Segundo Luce Irigaray e Judith Butler, as identidades individuais são construídas social e politicamente. Tendo isso em mente, o objetivo desta tese é analisar as relações de gênero como representadas no trabalho da escritora contemporânea Anne Enright. Ao analisar as personagens literários de Enright como uma representação das mulheres atuais, principalmente no que diz respeito à maternidade, os aspectos históricos e culturais específicos da Irlanda devem ser considerados para entender como a identidade das mulheres foi moldada com base em um estabelecimento ideológico político, religioso e social desde a virada do século até os dias atuais. A hipótese é que, em sua literatura, Enright define seus personagens tangencialmente e paradoxalmente provocando uma ruptura na imagem das mulheres socialmente estabelecida. Assim, ela ilumina o movimento do eu interior para o mundo exterior em uma tentativa estética de construir seu próprio espaço. Isso significa um processo no qual a autora usa estratégias narrativas para orientar o leitor em uma tentativa ascendente para a autoconsciência social. O objetivo dos textos literários de Enright é o de guiar o indivíduo pelo movimento espiralado dos seus pensamentos e, em primeiro lugar, obter uma auto-reflexão através da narrativa que impulsiona o interior dos personagens para o exterior. Então, abrangido pela espiral, o contexto social envolve o mundo interior da narrativa, promovendo uma elevação do leitor para uma autoconsciência de sua materialidade imersa nas relações humanas.

Typescript. / "August, 1959." / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Sara K. Srygley, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-43).

Novel: You & I. 'You & I' is a coming-of-age tale tied up in the themes of trauma, memory and storytelling. It follows sixteen-year-old Esther, who is sent to live on the fictional Cornish island of Little Wimbish following the disappearance of her bipolar mother. Once on the island where her mother grew up, the damaged and reclusive Esther finds herself caught up in the lives, history and folklore of the Wimbish community - not to mention the mystery of her father's identity. As the story progresses and Esther becomes more invested in the fairy tale escapes promised by the island she now calls home, the voice switches back and forth between the second and first person - and we begin to suspect that our narrator may have inherited her mother's illness. This is a novel concerned with how we tell stories - about ourselves, our histories, and the places we live - and why. Essay: The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Turning Trauma into Narrative in Anne Enright's The Gathering, Niall Williams' History of the Rain, and John Banville's The Sea. How do we recover from trauma, and what role can storytelling play in the recovery process? This essay investigates the notion that in Anne Enright's The Gathering, Niall Williams' History of the Rain and John Banville's The Sea, each narrator carries out an attempt at recovery, enacted through a written recollection of their past traumas. Taking inspiration from various trauma theorists and psychologists, along with writer and trauma survivor Edward St Aubyn, this essay lays out the necessary steps which must be taken in order to integrate trauma into one's life story. By writing down their trauma, constructing a narrative which allows for a certain amount of invention, facing up to the dirtier and more difficult aspects of their experiences, and finally, sharing the finished narrative with another person, the trauma survivor may facilitate the beginnings of a recovery.

M.A. (English) / This dissertation hinges on the exploration of three contemporary Irish novels, namely The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, The Gathering by Anne Enright, and The Sea by John Banville. What the three works have in common, besides their nationality, is a preoccupation with what exceeds their grasp: that is, their inspiration is also their limitation. All three set themselves the task of capturing and representing a past. The first two position themselves as rehabilitators of portions of Ireland’s history that have been occluded from official versions thereof. (Banville’s novel attempts to skirt as many limitations as possible, including a national one, in order to grapple, as unhindered as possible, with what narrative can achieve). Fictional rehabilitations of what occurred in a phenomenal reality are inevitably fraught because of their form’s limited grasp. However, this study seeks to trace each work’s fitful engagement with what it cannot encapsulate in order to ascertain the capabilities of narrative, in spite of its inherent limitations. I employ a broadly post-structuralist theoretical framework in order to engage with novels that incorporate into their content an awareness of the parameters within which they are obliged to function. Ultimately, I draw conclusions (which are necessarily limited themselves) as to the gesture each novel attempts to make beyond its bounds.

This thesis inquiries into trauma, its historical developments, experience, and symptoms. The theoretical part lays stress on post-traumatic stress disorder and its classification and diagnosis for the readers to have an extensive knowledge of trauma. The readers are also presented with the quintessential aftermath of trauma. The practical part adverts to childhood trauma of the main protagonists of The Gathering and The Hiding Place by the authors Anne Enright and Trezza Azzopardi. The intention is to query what happened to these characters, rather than focusing on what is wrong with them. The objective is to see the person behind his or her behaviour. Many studies refer to increasing problems in terms of mental health by children and adolescents associated with early childhood trauma. The aim in what follows is to consider whether the harm to childhood trauma can be remedied or whether childhood trauma persists until old age. KEY WORDS: Childhood trauma; post-traumatic stress disorder; trauma fiction; Enright; Azzopardi; The Gathering; The Hiding Place

I identify and analyse an emergent sub-genre of contemporary literature by women that I am calling ‘New Femininities’ fiction. This fiction is about the distinctly feminine experience of contemporary domestic life written by women about the lives of heterosexual female characters that are married or in committed partnerships, often with children. These texts are concerned with the nature of the self, with a self that is plural and ‘in process’, and make use of particular narrative devices – ironic voice, unreliable narration, free indirect discourse, and interrogative endings that exceed their roles as simply telling stories. ‘New Femininities’ fictions allow their language the necessary freedom to multiply meanings and enact the narrative conflicts they raise and by so doing, undermine the binary oppositions which structure a gendered world. In this dissertation, I argue the models of existing criticism would do a disservice to these texts because much of the criticism either overvalues the theoretical and ignores the literariness of the text or seeks to identify a ‘feminine’ language the definition of which serves to reinforce and revalue patriarchal notions of femininity. The readings that this fiction requires necessitate a negotiation with established models of feminist literary criticism. I attempt to identify the characteristics of their style that allows them to straddle binary oppositions and to look at the language these authors use without having to label it ‘feminine’ and by so doing establish, build, or reinforce a boundary with some undefined ‘masculine’ language which stands in for all occurrences that are not ‘feminine’. Additionally, I attempt to forge a transformed, adapted concept vocabulary for dealing with this group of writers. To this end, I make use of various discourses to show how the different authors either negotiate with that discourse or prove its inadequacy to describe or explain these new femininities.