<p> This dissertation study explores the rise of Irish women poets of the twentieth century, in particular Eavan Boland from the southern Republic of Ireland and Medbh McGuckian from Northern Ireland. It investigates the birth of Irish Feminist Literary Theory and Irish Postcolonial Literary Theory and uses these two theories to analyze the poetry found therein. This project shows that, unlike Irish women novelists and playwrights, Irish women poets were excluded from the Irish canon until poets such as Boland and McGuckian destabilized their once rigid national literary tradition and challenged it to include women as both authors and subjects of the Irish poem. In addition to challenging their patriarchal literary tradition, Irish women poets of the twentieth century also drew attention to the lingering effects of British colonial rule in Ireland, demonstrating that Irish women poets were doubly colonized and doubly marginalized. As a result, their poetry features two distinct voices: one which speaks for the women who were silenced in Ireland and one which raises postcolonial issues. By challenging the hegemonic power structures which dominated them, Boland and McGuckian paved the way for the Irish women poets who followed, including Mary O'Malley from the Republic of Ireland and Sinéad Morrissey from Northern Ireland. For the most part, Irish women poets of the twenty-first century have managed to let go of the trauma of colonization—both patriarchal and imperial—and have created a new hybrid national identity, a Third Space, which has liberated their work. This hybridity has broadened the vision of the Irish poem which now features a new global voice.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3576677 |
| Date | 12 December 2013 |
| Creators | McMullen, Maram George |
| Publisher | King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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