A Life of Their Own: The Quest Motif in Contemporary Irish Women’s Short Stories

Abstract

This article focuses on the motif of quest in contemporary Irish women’s short stories, in particular those published in the 1980s and 90s by Clare Boylan, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Stella Mahon, Mary Dorcey and  Marilyn McLaughlin. In these stories women, through the agency of various catalysts, attain a kind of enlightenment or “awakening” which leads them to strive to subvert or transcend the social norm or to reconcile with residual trauma from their past. This awakening process is a consequence of an inner journey of self development which takes place while engaging with society in order to renegotiate their place within that society. Irish women’s stories are, in general, characterised by an undercurrent of anger, rebellion and subversion within the narrative which reflects a certain level of feminist awareness. Overall, there
appears to be a strong case for evaluating contemporary Irish women’s short stories from a feminist perspective. As suggested by Christine St. Peter, many stories by Irish women illustrate through narrative a latent power to challenge or to subvert the traditionally accepted and dominant patriarchal ideology of Irish society.

Keywords: Irish feminism, Irish short story, rebellious women, transformation, quest.