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Figuring the Mother in Contemporary Irish Fiction

Bibliographic Data

ID20074597
AuthorsAnn Owens Weekes (corresponding author)
Year2000
Pages100-124
Publication date2000-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueContemporary Irish Fiction (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9780230287990_6
OpenAlexW2463009585
ISBN9780230287990
LanguageEN
Citations received8

‘Woman reigns as an autocrat in the kingdom of her home. Her sway is absolute’1 — so wrote Mary E. Butler at the beginning of the twentieth century, thereby highlighting the theme of motherhood which was then ubiquitous in Irish culture, from sentimental popular songs to the Catholic Church’s veneration of the Virgin Mary. Subsequent decades witnessed an intensification of this national preoccupation with the maternal, culminating in the formal recognition in the 1937 Irish Constitution that a woman’s natural and proper place is in the home as a full-time wife and mother. Such national idealization of the mother inevitably engendered an unquestioning cultural acceptance that motherhood should be the goal of every Irish woman, a guarantor of social prestige and respect. Yet while analysts were quick to note the veneration of the mother in Irish family life, mothers themselves were relatively silent on both the rewards and restrictions of such veneration.2 Until recent years, few Irish women spoke as mothers in popular culture or had a voice within the institutional structures of Church or state

Ancient history · Autocracy · Constitution · Democracy · Irish · Political science · Politics · Prestige · Sociology · Veneration · Gender Studies · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Philosophy

  • No angels in the house in Martin McDonagh’s The beauty queen of Leenane and Eimear McBride’s A girl is a half-formed thing

    Open Access•Esther de la Peña•Revista Internacional de Culturas…•2022

  • Vexing Motherhoods in Ireland and Abroad in Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s Mother America

    Open Access•Aitor Ibarrola Armendáriz, Aitor Ibarrola-Armendariz•Estudios Irlandeses•2018

  • La evolución de la figura materna en las películas sobre el conflicto irlandés

    Open Access•Josefina Martínez Álvarez•Araucaria•2024

  • And the Transformation Begins

    Elke D’hoker, E D'hoker•Contemporary Women s Writing•2012

  • Irish Women’s Confessional Writing

    Open Access•María Amor Barros-Del Río, Melania Terrazas Gallego•Life Writing•2022

  • Renegotiating Relationships between Mothers and Daughters in Jennifer Johnston's The Invisible Worm and The Illusionist

    Mara Reisman Mara Reisman, Mara E Reisman•Frontiers A Journal of Women…•2014

  • Everyone wants a bit of me”

    Laura Sydora•Women s Studies•2015

  • Transcending Boundaries

    Vanesa Roldán Romero•English Studies•2025

Unique citing works8
Citations per year0,57
Citation span2012 - 2025 (14)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 8

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