Edna obrien autobiography definition pdf

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In time, O'Brien has become

This article focuses on Edna O'Brien's representation in her short fiction of Irish women's experiences during the s and s the time of Eamon de Valera's Ireland. In particular, it examines the emotional paralysis and entrapment experienced by her female characters in the enclosed and bigoted setting of a small Irish village. O'Brien usually presents women as victims of a patriarchal society, always subjected to the pressure of restrictive gendered expectations.

In particular, nationalism and religion are consistently depicted in her fiction as powerful ideologies determining women's role in their rural communities. Edna O'Brien's name is inextricably linked to references to rural Ireland and women's sexuality, exile and divorce. In one word, controversy is what has defined this author's work for many years in her native Ireland and abroad.

Her writing has been considered fresh and poetic and her constant treatment of female characters and their struggles has given her a place in the literary canon in English McMahon ;. But what gives O'Brien's writing a special touch is her treatment of women's issues in a particular context: the Irish one. The conjunction of the Irish heritage and Irish women protagonists allows new and multiple interpretations and recreations of "Irishness" that the author has explored expertly.

This article focuses on one of her most recent novels, Wild Decembers, and the unavoidable connections that exist between the matter of the land and the feminine representation of the nation, now embodied in Breege, its female protagonist. Additionally, both Church and state maintained that women should hold a certain morality, particularly relating to areas of sexuality and reproduction.

This paper will also discuss how these same issues are being represented in Irish chick lit novels, thus providing a frank and positive voice for these largely female issues and for the everyday experiences of women in Ireland.