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Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volumes IV & V: Irish Women's Writing and Traditions(Softback - 2005) €99.00 |
Price: €99.00
Add to BagThe collection goes beyond an anthology of writing by women and opts for an anthology of writing thematizing women and gender issues. This shift from an authorial to a thematic approach is daring and proves highly fruitful. The anthology might easily have ended up incorporating a mixumgatherum of texts organized by the two (often fortuitous, and not always complementary) selection criteria of Irish provenance and by a woman; instead we now have materials FROM Ireland ON gender, not shirking anonymous and male-authored selections. This in fact gives far greater coherence to a very wide-ranging selection of texts, from legal to lyrical and from medical to mythical, yet with a common focus and a constant unifying concern. What is more, the section shows that gender issues, while often taking on a specific form or intension in the Irish context, are not restricted to Ireland alone: the editors have wisely chosen to include translations and reflections of wider European or global currents.
The array of genres / discursive fields and sections covers all of Irish writing, and it is a delight to discover the names and texts brought together here. The reader is surprised at each turn by unexpected, hither to-obscure or startling selections; and browsing the table of contents is in itself a wholesome lesson in how to re-think Irish literary and cultural history. Canonical authors are represented by little-known (but always deeply interesting and well-chosen) pieces of their work; women of whom we don't immediately think as authors or Irish are presented in an unexpected capacity. Where could one hope to encounter Helen Waddell and Marie Stopes under such fresh auspices and in close proximity I have never seen an anthology which has so drastically extended one's frame of reference on its theme.
It goes far beyond the root meaning of an anthology - a literary garland - and instead gives us nothing less than the materials for a cultural history of women in Ireland. It is a unique piece of work and cannot fail to become a landmark of learning worldwide. Worth the wait; every bit of it.
Joep Leerssen, Professor of Modern European Literature, University of Amsterdam
Softback: 2005
Printed Pages: 3200
Size: 234 x 178mm
ISBN: 9781859183847
Book Reviews
Elaine Showalter, Professor of English, Princeton University
May 26, 2009, 14:21 pm
“A monumental and heroic work of collective scholarship that will transform our understanding of the Irish literary tradition. Yes she said yes yes.”
Seamus Heaney, Nobel Laureate
May 26, 2009, 14:20 pm
“These new volumes are a mighty achievement: the texts and contexts of more than a thousand years of Irish women’s writing brilliantly, abundantly presented and comprehended. The editors have redefined the curriculum of studies.”
Sandra M. Gilbert, Professor of English, University of California, Davis
May 26, 2009, 14:20 pm
“From medieval spells to contemporary spellings, from eighteenth-century debates over women’s education to current controversies about female sexuality, these rich and brilliant volumes are ambitiously abundant in their representation of Irish women’s lives, works and ways. It’s impossible to imagine a more scrupulous, wide-ranging set of sources for students, scholars and general readers who want to investigate the energetically flourishing literary and political traditions that have been shaped by (and shape) Ireland’s women.”
