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TASTWK05 - Kate O'Brien and Contemporary Irish Women's Literature
In the 1930s-1940s, when she wrote some of her best books, Kate O’Brien enjoyed both high critical acclaim and immense popularity with the general reader. Her formidable artistic vision enabled her to carve a space for herself among the male writers of the day. When two of her novels were banned and her reputation marred, she lost her connection with the native reader; and in the years that followed there was little critical engagement with her work in Ireland. This lecture, which is a sort of prequel to the course on Female Voices in Contemporary Irish Literature, considers O’Brien as an example of a strong voice in Irish literature. It discusses her literary legacy in conjunction with the works of some of the best contemporary Irish female writers, exploring the preoccupations as well as the controversial aspects of both. The question ‘What are the boundaries that today’s women writers are trying to push?’ will be among topics discussed.
Dr Jana van der Ziel Fischerova received her doctoral degree from UCD, where she wrote a comparative thesis on literary censorship in Ireland and Czechoslovakia. Her main research interests include twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature and culture, the relationship between literature and society, and censorship. Jana is currently teaching Literature in English on the UCD Access to Arts and Human Sciences programme. She is also working on a volume of Kate O’Brien’s non-fiction, as a sole editor.
Tuesday22nd August 2017, 12:00pm - 12:50pm