Main description:

This volume studies the manifestations of female trauma through the exploration of multiple wounds, inflicted on both body and mind (Caruth 1996, 3) and the soul of Irish women from Northern Ireland and the Republic within a contemporary context, and in literary works written at the turn of the twenty-first century and beyond. These artistic manifestations connect tradition and modernity, debunk myths, break the silence with the exposure of uncomfortable realities, dismantle stereotypes and reflect reality with precision. Women's issues and female experiences depicted in contemporary fiction may provide an explanation for past and present gender dynamics, revealing a pathway for further renegotiation of gender roles and the achievement of equilibrium and equality between sexes. These works might help to seal and heal wounds both old and new and offer solutions to the quandaries of tomorrow.

Contents:

MADALINA ARMIE AND VERONICA MEMBRIVE

Introduction

PART I - ESSAYS

JESSICA ALIAGA-LAVRIJSEN

University of Zaragoza, Spain

Trauma, Reproduction and Breeding in Catherine Brophy's Dark Paradise
BURCU GUELUEM TEKIN

University of Zaragoza, Spain

Different Kinds of Love: Silenced Women in Leland Bardwell's Short Fiction
ELENA CANTUESO URBANO AND MARIA ISABEL ROMERO RUIZ

University of Malaga, Spain

Trauma after a Life of Torture in Irish Magdalene Laundries: Magdalene Survivors' Testimonies and Patricia Burke-Brogan's Stained Glass at Samhain
PAULA ROMO-MAYOR

University of Zaragoza, Spain

Shattering the Moulds of Tradition: The Role of Women in the Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma in Rachel Seiffert's The Walk Home
MELANIA TERRAZAS

University of La Rioja, Spain

Representations of Trauma, Memory and the Silencing of Irish Women: Storytelling in Emer Martin's The Cruelty Men
F.B. SCHUERMANN

University College Dublin (UCD), School of English, Drama, and Film, Ireland

Exposition of a Half-formed System: Trauma and Other Matters in Eimear McBride's A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing

ALICIA MURO

University of La Rioja, Spain

Damaged Women: Trauma, Shame and Silence in Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends and Normal People
KAYLA FANNING

Concordia University, Canada

Conditions of Homecoming: Self-Care and Anticipation in Louise O'Neill's Only Ever Yours and The Surface Breaks
ASIER ALTUNA-GARCIA DE SALAZAR

University of Deusto, Spain

Confronting Female Unspeakable Truths in Ireland: Donal Ryan's Strange Flowers
MAYRON ESTEFAN CANTILLO-LUCUARA

University of Valencia, Spain

Emma Donoghue's Hood and the Aesthetics of Existential Claustrophobia: From Traumatic Self-Retreat to Uncloseted Grief
MARIA GAVINA-COSTERO

University of Valencia, Spain

Don't Tell Them: The Strategy of Silence in Anna Burns' Milkman

PART 2. PIECES OF CREATIVE WRITING

CATHERINE DUNNE

A Good Enough Mother
Unpublished literary piece of novel

MIA GALLAGHER

Dirty Irish Punk
Unpublished literary piece of novel

LIA MILLS

"Flight"

Reissued short story