By Hollie Johnston
Author Biography:
Hollie Johnston is a fourth-year student studying French and English Literature who was born and raised in Northern Ireland. Her literary passions are closely tied to her upbringing, as she holds a deep interest in Northern Irish poetry, which remains her primary area of focus. Additionally, she is drawn towards 20th-century British Romanticism, with a specific affinity for the works of renowned writers such as William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Samuel L. Coleridge, among others. More recently however, her favourite book would be Panenka by Rónán Hession.
Read the full article here:
This essay explores the complex relationship between feminism, gender politics, and Nationalist literature in Northern Ireland. Although early Nationalist movements sought to view men and women as equal, the relationship between these ideologies became complicated over the course of the 20th century. William Butler Yeats' play, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, illustrates how Nationalism's association with femininity and womanhood can be regressive, and contributes to social expectations of female passivity and purity in Ireland. This essay examines the influences of Cathleen Ni Houlihan as a symbol of Ireland on the depictions and expectations of women in Northern Irish poetry. Specifically, it focuses on the problematic portrayal of Cathleen Ni Houlihan in Seamus Heaney's poetry and its influence on subsequent interpretations of gender in later generations of Northern Irish poets. In particular, the ways in which the poets Paul Muldoon and Medbh McGuckian build upon and reject Heaney's earlier use of Cathleen Ni Houlihan to negatively portray women.
Comments