Rewriting the Irish Mother Figure: Dismantling Stereotypes of Motherhood and Maternity in Contemporary Irish Literature

BARNES, Katie

Abstract

This thesis will argue that contemporary Irish women’s literature challenges
traditional tropes of motherhood and reframes the Irish mother as a multidimensional
figure who is separate from both the church and state. Drawing upon a range of
theoretical perspectives but with a focus on feminism, the thesis will argue that the
multifaceted representations of motherhood found in contemporary literature are
representative of a broader, more inclusive attitude towards motherhood in modern
Irish society. It will contend that traditional ideals of ‘good mothering’ found in
literature are challenged by political progressions in feminism such as the Repeal the
Eighth movement and the Creasy-McGinn Amendment, which have led to significant
changes in how motherhood and maternity are addressed and represented within
the contemporary literary canon. It will build upon critical work by Gerardine Meaney,
Patricia Kennedy, and Mary Ryan to assert that, in some representations, the figure
of the suffering mother has been developed in twenty-first-century literature into a
figure who is also capable of inflicting suffering onto others. It will interrogate the
disjuncture between the veneration of the mother figure and the lived experiences of
maternity, which has a shameful place in Ireland’s recent history by analysing a
broad range of motherhood experiences and their representations within literature. It
will analyse novels, short stories, memoir, and experimental hybrid writing to
establish how motherhood is theorised and represented as a challenge to the
traditional figure of the Irish mother who remains a stalwart of Irish culture and
society. This thesis will clearly demonstrate that representations of motherhood and
maternity found in contemporary Irish literature are more nuanced than previously
theorised and offer innovative readings of this new canon of complex texts

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Online Publication Date: Mar 27, 2025
• Deposit Date: Mar 17, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 28, 2027
• Award Date: Mar 27, 2025