Irish Short Story Month
March 1 to March 31
Clare Boylan
1948 to 2006 -Dublin
Please consider joining us for the event. All you need to do is complete a post on any Irish Short Story and let me know about it. I will publicize your post and keep a master list. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
"When my womb packed up I went through a sort of widowhood although my husband was not yet dead."
Clare Boylan was an Irish author, journalist, and critic for print and broadcast media. She wrote a number of novels including Holy Pictures, Home Rule, and Room for a Single Lady. She is probably best know for her 2003 novel, Emma, a completion of an unfinished novel by Charlotte Bronte. She also published three collections of her short stories. She died at age 58 of ovarian cancer.
"The Little Madonna" by Clare Boylan is an extremely interesting story that combines together several themes. On the surface it is the story of a woman in her late 4Os or early 50s who is dealing with the psychological consequences of menopause and her reaction to the life story of a pregnant sixteen year old mother left on her own, living in a council house. It also brings in at a deeper level issues related to the Crucifiction and childhood of Jesus and the indifference of society to its weakest members. This very disturbing line and he unraveling of its meaning lets us see much of what is behind this story: "The womb does not have a brain, but that is like saying that the rat is not an intelligent creature." I think Freud infuriated generations of feminists when he said "Anatomy is destiny". Part of this story is in the feeling the female narrator has of almost worthlessness when she can no longer have children.
This is a very dense complicated story with several levels of irony in the deployment of the consciousness of he narrator. She feels both trapped by her role as a mother and empty when she cannot see herself as anything else. This is echoed in what happens to the sixteen year old girl in the story. The narrator knows of her only through what she reads in the paper.
The Anchor Book of New Irish Writing is my source for this story which I really admired for its depiction of how the woman viewed her self and was unable to rise above structures she knows society has imposed on her.
This is my first exposure to the work of Claire Boylan and I for sure hope to read more of her work in the future.
The Guardian has a very informative obituary on her.
Please share your experience with Boylan with us.
"When my womb packed up I went through a sort of widowhood although my husband was not yet dead."
"The Little Madonna" by Clare Boylan is an extremely interesting story that combines together several themes. On the surface it is the story of a woman in her late 4Os or early 50s who is dealing with the psychological consequences of menopause and her reaction to the life story of a pregnant sixteen year old mother left on her own, living in a council house. It also brings in at a deeper level issues related to the Crucifiction and childhood of Jesus and the indifference of society to its weakest members. This very disturbing line and he unraveling of its meaning lets us see much of what is behind this story: "The womb does not have a brain, but that is like saying that the rat is not an intelligent creature." I think Freud infuriated generations of feminists when he said "Anatomy is destiny". Part of this story is in the feeling the female narrator has of almost worthlessness when she can no longer have children.
This is a very dense complicated story with several levels of irony in the deployment of the consciousness of he narrator. She feels both trapped by her role as a mother and empty when she cannot see herself as anything else. This is echoed in what happens to the sixteen year old girl in the story. The narrator knows of her only through what she reads in the paper.
The Anchor Book of New Irish Writing is my source for this story which I really admired for its depiction of how the woman viewed her self and was unable to rise above structures she knows society has imposed on her.
This is my first exposure to the work of Claire Boylan and I for sure hope to read more of her work in the future.
The Guardian has a very informative obituary on her.
Please share your experience with Boylan with us.
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