Jennifer Mooney, "Feminist Discourse in Irish Literature: Gender and Power in Louise O'Neill's Young Adult Fiction" (Routledge, 2022)

Summary

Feminist Discourse in Irish Literature: Gender and Power in Louise O'Neill's Young Adult Fiction (Routledge, 2022) addresses the role of YA Irish literature in responding and contributing to some the most controversial and contemporary issues in today's modern society: gender, and conflicting views of power, sexism, and consent. 

This volume provides an original, innovative, and necessary examination of how "rape culture" and the intersections between feminism and power have become increasingly relevant to Irish society in the years since Irish author Louise O'Neill's novels for young adults Only Ever Yours and Asking for It were published. In consideration of the socio-political context in Ireland and broader Western culture from which O'Neill's works were written, and taking into account a selection of Irish, American, Australian and British YA texts that address similar issues in different contexts, this text highlights the contradictions in O'Neill's works and illuminates their potential to function as a form of literary/social fundamentalism which often undermines, rather than promotes, equality.

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Helen Penet

Helen Penet is a lecturer in English and Irish Studies at Université de Lille (France).
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