Forgotten Austerities
Kate O’Brien’s Queer Nuns
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17820165 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael G Cronin (National University of Ireland, Maynooth, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 58-58 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0787 • E-ISSN: 2076-0787 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/h15040058 |
| OpenAlex | W7154707775 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
This is a study of the nun as a queer archetype of femininity across Kate O’Brien’s fiction and non-fiction. Alongside characters who are actual nuns, the fiction includes characters who can be described as ‘nun-like,’ especially in their renunciation of sexual desire. In the fiction, this secular renunciation is aligned with religious celibacy as actively chosen and ethically purposeful and situated as similar to artistic creativity. The study argues that O’Brien’s nuns are paradoxical and queer figures, undermining the temporality, class politics and models of human subjectivity central to O’Brien’s own ideological commitments. Attending to these nun figures prompts significant questions about the liberal feminist politics underpinning contemporary O’Brien studies and the prevailing critical reception of O’Brien as an exemplary Irish woman writer
Archetype · Femininity · Feminism · Ideology · Politics · Queer · Queer theory · Renunciation · Subjectivity · Evelyn Waugh and Hans Urs von Balthasar Studies · Irish and British Studies · Medieval Literature and History
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |