Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and Contemporary Women's Writing

Feminist Interventions and Imaginings

Claire Bracken, Tara Harney-Mahajan, Claire Bracken, Tara Harney-Mahajan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000396270
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism for Women Authors
• Index: Literature

Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and Contemporary Women's Writing: Feminist Interventions and Imaginings analyzes and explores women's writing of the post-Tiger period and reflects on the social, cultural, and economic conditions of this writing's production.

The Post-Celtic Tiger period (2008–) in Ireland marks an important moment in the history of women's writing. It is a time of increased visibility and publication, dynamic feminist activism, and collective projects, as well as a significant garnering of public recognition to a degree that has never been seen before. The collection is framed by interviews with Claire Kilroy and Melatu Uche Okorie—two leading figures in the field—and closes with Okorie's landmark short story on Direct Provision, "This Hostel Life." The book features the work of leading scholars in the field of contemporary literature, with essays on Anu Productions, Emma Donoghue, Grace Dyas, Anne Enright, Rita Ann Higgins, Marian Keyes, Claire Kilroy, Eimear McBride, Rosaleen McDonagh, Belinda McKeon, Melatu Uche Okorie, Louise O'Neill, and Waking The Feminists. Reflecting on all the successes and achievements of women's writing in the contemporary period, this book also considers marginalization and exclusions in the field, especially considering the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and ability.

The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 A Continuum of Women’s Writing: Reflections on the Post-Celtic Tiger Era
• 2 Claire Kilroy: An Overview and an Interview (with a 2020 Addendum)
• 3 “no difference between the different kinds of yesterday:” The Neoliberal Present in The Green Road, The Devil I Know, and The Lives of Women
• 4 Transformative Tales for Recessionary Times: Emma Donoghue’s Room and Marian Keyes’ The Brightest Star in the Sky
• 5 Queer Possession and the Celtic Tiger: Affect and Economics in Belinda McKeon’s Tender
• 6 Gina and the Kryptonite: Mortgage Shagging in Anne Enright’s The Forgotten Waltz
• 7 Waking the Feminists: Re-imagining the Space of the National Theatre in the Era of the Celtic Phoenix
• 8 A Girl is a Half-formed Thing?: Girlhood, Trauma, and Resistance in Post-Tiger Irish Literature
• 9 Melatu Uche Okorie: An Introduction to her Work and a Conversation with the Author (with Preface: 2020 Update)
• 10 This Hostel Life
• Index