Description
Recent writing on the presence of Irish YA fiction has brought questions of feminism, rage, autonomy and cultural knowledge to the forefront. Additionally, with the advent of equal marriage, a drop in numbers of practicing Roman Catholics, and the extensive impact of the Magdalene Laundries and institutionalization of young women throughout Ireland’s older and more recent history, the question of religious trauma at a generational level is one that holds potential for literary exploration. Whyte (2011) argues that while Irish acceptance of homosexuality improved during the Celtic Tiger era, representations of teenage sexuality, especially queer sexuality, have been limited. Cahill (2017) argues that recent literary focus on the Irish teenage girl can finally spotlight the importance of especially young women in the establishment and independence of our nation. Kennon (2020) explores the changing realities of Irish teenage girls, including our national relationship with religion, queer identity and ‘witcherature’ writing by Irish women writers. Among these writers, Deirdre Sullivan’s Perfectly Preventable Deaths, Caroline O’Donoghue’s All Our Hidden Gifts and Sarah Maria Griffin’s Other Words for Smoke hold unique intersections of queer identities, magical expression, and generational religious trauma. This paper will further explore where magical and queer women’s identities overlap or mirror each other in the above texts, and how these have been influenced by the Irish relationship to religion at individual and State levels.| Period | 5 Sept 2024 |
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| Held at | Irish Humanities Alliance, Ireland |