I research Irish lesbian fiction. I analyse in depth the interference of various factors and institutions of power in the homosexual politics of Ireland, and my work examines the development of Irish lesbian narrative from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. Address: United Kingdom
This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel Univers... more This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonLesbian existence was more or less absent from the Irish public arena until the 1980s, when David Norris began the battle to decriminalise homosexual acts. Following that event, female writers produced a plethora of literatures featuring openly lesbian characters. However, the lesbian subject, expressed implicitly, existed on the peripheries of Irish fiction long before then. This study examines the development of Irish lesbian narrative between 1801 and 2017 based on stages of Vivienne Cass’s “Homosexual Identity Formation: A Theoretical Model” (1979). Beginning with the investigation of romantic friendships between women, A New Framework for Rethinking Love between Women looks closely at the historical antecedents preceding the emergence of lesbian desire in early-nineteenth-century literature, and later examines to what extent women’s performativity of female masculinity in ...
An article for the Irish Times written in December 2021 about my book, published the same year, I... more An article for the Irish Times written in December 2021 about my book, published the same year, Irish Lesbian Writing Across Time.
The paper explores how lesbian representation evolves in a specifically Irish context. It examine... more The paper explores how lesbian representation evolves in a specifically Irish context. It examines selected texts of Mary Dorcey and Emma Donoghue, who were the leading lesbian authors of the last decade of the twentieth century, and whose writing entered Irish lesbian writing into a new stage of referring to lesbian desire in an open manner, thus entering lesbian fiction into the canon of Irish literature. The article analyses Dorcey's and Donoghue's lesbian works in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as well as the political atmosphere and the religious secularity of the Republic of Ireland, which prevented these works from coming out sooner, and whose characters are not only openly lesbian, but also occupy central spaces of their respective narratives.
The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences all... more The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences allowed them to discuss lesbian desire from a non-stigmatised point of view. It also portrays how writing from white, western countries towards the end of the twentieth century, privileged the Irish lesbian narrative to represent a more globalised approach towards lesbian desire. Firstly, the paper will illustrate how distance from Ireland allowed authors to discuss issues affecting and disturbing Lesbian Nation and lesbian community of the 1980s, and secondly, it will discuss how queer diaspora and hybridity shaped lesbian diasporic writing in non-western societies at the turn of the century.
Th e paper explores how lesbian representation evolves in a specifi cally Irish context. It exam... more Th e paper explores how lesbian representation evolves in a specifi cally Irish context. It examines selected texts of Mary Dorcey and Emma Donoghue, who were the leading lesbian authors of the last decade of the twentieth century, and whose writing entered Irish lesbian writing into a new stage of referring to lesbian desire in an open manner, thus entering lesbian fi ction into the canon of Irish literature. Th e article analyses Dorcey’s and Donoghue’s lesbian works in the late twentieth and early twenty-fi rst centuries, as well as the political atmosphere and the religious secularity of the Republic of Ireland, which prevented these works from coming out sooner, and whose characters are not only openly lesbian, but also occupy central spaces of their respective narratives.
The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences all... more The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences allowed them to discuss lesbian desire from a non-stigmatised point of view. It also portrays how writing from white, western countries towards the end of the twentieth century, privileged the Irish lesbian narrative to represent a more globalised approach towards lesbian desire. Firstly, the paper will illustrate how distance from Ireland allowed authors to discuss issues affecting and disturbing Lesbian Nation and lesbian community of the 1980s, and secondly, it will discuss how queer diaspora and hy-bridity shaped lesbian diasporic writing in non-western societies at the turn of the century.
This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel Univers... more This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonLesbian existence was more or less absent from the Irish public arena until the 1980s, when David Norris began the battle to decriminalise homosexual acts. Following that event, female writers produced a plethora of literatures featuring openly lesbian characters. However, the lesbian subject, expressed implicitly, existed on the peripheries of Irish fiction long before then. This study examines the development of Irish lesbian narrative between 1801 and 2017 based on stages of Vivienne Cass’s “Homosexual Identity Formation: A Theoretical Model” (1979). Beginning with the investigation of romantic friendships between women, A New Framework for Rethinking Love between Women looks closely at the historical antecedents preceding the emergence of lesbian desire in early-nineteenth-century literature, and later examines to what extent women’s performativity of female masculinity in ...
An article for the Irish Times written in December 2021 about my book, published the same year, I... more An article for the Irish Times written in December 2021 about my book, published the same year, Irish Lesbian Writing Across Time.
The paper explores how lesbian representation evolves in a specifically Irish context. It examine... more The paper explores how lesbian representation evolves in a specifically Irish context. It examines selected texts of Mary Dorcey and Emma Donoghue, who were the leading lesbian authors of the last decade of the twentieth century, and whose writing entered Irish lesbian writing into a new stage of referring to lesbian desire in an open manner, thus entering lesbian fiction into the canon of Irish literature. The article analyses Dorcey's and Donoghue's lesbian works in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as well as the political atmosphere and the religious secularity of the Republic of Ireland, which prevented these works from coming out sooner, and whose characters are not only openly lesbian, but also occupy central spaces of their respective narratives.
The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences all... more The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences allowed them to discuss lesbian desire from a non-stigmatised point of view. It also portrays how writing from white, western countries towards the end of the twentieth century, privileged the Irish lesbian narrative to represent a more globalised approach towards lesbian desire. Firstly, the paper will illustrate how distance from Ireland allowed authors to discuss issues affecting and disturbing Lesbian Nation and lesbian community of the 1980s, and secondly, it will discuss how queer diaspora and hybridity shaped lesbian diasporic writing in non-western societies at the turn of the century.
Th e paper explores how lesbian representation evolves in a specifi cally Irish context. It exam... more Th e paper explores how lesbian representation evolves in a specifi cally Irish context. It examines selected texts of Mary Dorcey and Emma Donoghue, who were the leading lesbian authors of the last decade of the twentieth century, and whose writing entered Irish lesbian writing into a new stage of referring to lesbian desire in an open manner, thus entering lesbian fi ction into the canon of Irish literature. Th e article analyses Dorcey’s and Donoghue’s lesbian works in the late twentieth and early twenty-fi rst centuries, as well as the political atmosphere and the religious secularity of the Republic of Ireland, which prevented these works from coming out sooner, and whose characters are not only openly lesbian, but also occupy central spaces of their respective narratives.
The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences all... more The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences allowed them to discuss lesbian desire from a non-stigmatised point of view. It also portrays how writing from white, western countries towards the end of the twentieth century, privileged the Irish lesbian narrative to represent a more globalised approach towards lesbian desire. Firstly, the paper will illustrate how distance from Ireland allowed authors to discuss issues affecting and disturbing Lesbian Nation and lesbian community of the 1980s, and secondly, it will discuss how queer diaspora and hy-bridity shaped lesbian diasporic writing in non-western societies at the turn of the century.
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