Book Description

Highlighting the work of both established and emerging scholars in Irish studies, this collection brings together fifteen essays working at the intersection of two important and developing fields of Irish studies: gender studies and cultural geography. Developed from papers first presented at a regional meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies in South Carolina in 2006, not only does this work suggest the importance of linking gender and geography, but it also suggests, in the range of literary and historical topics, the rich interdisciplinary nature of Irish studies at present. Central to all of the essays is an attention to intersections of gender and sexual identity formation with the politics of place and space. Although considerations of geographic space have long been staples of Irish cultural studies, especially in relation to political identities, these pieces suggest the critical importance of linking spatial and geographic analysis more clearly to ongoing examinations of gender and sexuality. From institutions such as the Magdalen laundries and the prison to the domestic garden and home, across urban and rural landscapes, from the Dublin GPO to a St. Patty's festival in the southern United States—this book examines the local and human contexts of identity formation and performance.