Irish Women Writers Speak Out Voices from the Field

Caitriona Moloney and Helen Thompson's interviews examine the complicated maps of experience that these women's public, private, and literary lives represent, particularly as they engage with both feminism and postcolonialism. Acknowledging Mary Robinson's revised view of Irish identity as global rather than insular, this work recognizes the importance of identity as a site of mobility. The interviews reveal how complex the terms "feminism" and "postcolonialism" are; they examine how the individual writers see their identities constructed and/or mediated by sexuality. Between the interviews, the authors trace common themes of female agency, violence, generational conflicts, migration, emigration, religion, and politics to name a few. The collection testifies to the lively and diverse nature of contemporary Irish women's literature, and it explodes myths about Irish women and Irishness in general.