"Feminizing Ireland": Cultural Revisionism and Feminist Writing in Celtic Tiger Ireland

Abstract

This thesis will engage with a multitude of critical theories, sociological studies, and political legislation in an attempt to demonstrate the role female-centered literature is playing in the cultural revision of the Irish nation at the turn of the twenty-first century. In an effort to interrogate the state of social change, I will draw on contemporary feminist novels and short stories in order to answer a question lingering behind the so-called “success” of Irish modernity: How did we get here? Literature is the very site in which Irish identity is being deconstructed, renegotiated, and rewritten, and the retrospective struggles of Irish women are the narratives through which authors are choosing to investigate the past and question the ideological forces of social transformation. However, this is not an all-encompassing study, merely a snapshot of some of the themes, questions, and concerns occupying the minds of Irish writers throughout the Celtic Tiger.