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Irish Studies: Geographies and Genders
Editor: Marti D. Lee and Ed Madden
Date Of Publication: May 2008
Isbn13: 9781847185495
Isbn: 1-84718-549-5
Highlighting the work of both established and emerging scholars in Irish studies, this collection brings together fifteen essays working at the intersection of two important and developing fields of Irish studies: gender studies and cultural geography. Developed from papers first presented at a regional meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies in South Carolina in 2006, not only does this work suggest the importance of linking gender and geography, but it also suggests, in the range of literary and historical topics, the rich interdisciplinary nature of Irish studies at present. Central to all of the essays is an attention to intersections of gender and sexual identity formation with the politics of place and space. Although considerations of geographic space have long been staples of Irish cultural studies, especially in relation to political identities, these pieces suggest the critical importance of linking spatial and geographic analysis more clearly to ongoing examinations of gender and sexuality. From institutions such as the Magdalen laundries and the prison to the domestic garden and home, across urban and rural landscapes, from the Dublin GPO to a St. Patty's festival in the southern United States—this book examines the local and human contexts of identity formation and performance.

Ed Madden is associate professor of English and associate director of Women and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina. He is the author of Signals, which won the South Carolina Poetry Prize, and Tiresian Poetics: Modernism, Sexuality, Voice 1888-2001, a study of twentieth century aesthetics grounded in sexual dissidence.

Marti D. Lee is a PhD candidate at the University of South Carolina in twentieth-century British and Irish literature and medieval literature. Currently an adjunct professor at Armstrong Atlantic State University, she is completing a dissertation on 20th century adaptations of the Cuchulain myth.

“This volume of essays offers a new look at old themes by situating itself in the fruitful space where gender and geography collide in Ireland. It features intriguing intersections between Aran and the Congo, Ireland and Palestine, Kilmainham and Alcatraz, while straddling the Irish and English languages, male and female, creative and scholarly writing. The approaches taken are genuinely comparative and engage generously with their subjects, while displaying the scholarly breadth of contemporary Irish Studies.”

-- Kevin Whelan, Smurfit Director of the Keough-Notre Dame Center, Dublin, Ireland

“These essays move beyond analysis of the trope of a feminized land and nation and toward a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of gendered bodies in space, the importance of particular physical and imaginative geographies for understanding and performing gender, and the relationships between (inter)national and gendered identities and politics. In so doing, they put Geography and Gender in Irish Studies on the cutting edge of Irish studies scholarship.”

-- Kathryn Conrad, Associate Professor of English, University of Kansas, author of Locked in the Family Cell: Gender, Sexuality, and Political Agency in Irish National Discourses, and winner of the Dermot McGlinchey Award for pioneering work in Irish studies

Price Uk Gbp: 34.99
Price Us Usd: 52.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)

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