Reading the Irish woman : studies in cultural encounter and exchange, 1714-1960 / [electronic resource]
Meaney, Gerardine,1962-author.
O'Dowd, Mary,author.
Whelan, Bernadette,author.
The theme of this book is cultural encounter and exchange in Irish women's lives. Using three case studies: the Enlightenment, emigration and modernism, it analyses reading and popular and consumer culture as sites of negotiation of gender roles. It traces how the circulation of ideas, fantasies and aspirations which have shaped women's lives in actuality and in imagination and argues that there were many different ways of being a woman. Attention to women's cultural consumption and production shows that one individual may in one day identify with representations of heroines of romantic fiction, patriots, philanthropists, literary ladies, film stars, career women, popular singers, advertising models and foreign missionaries. The processes of cultural consumption, production and exchange provide evidence of women's agency, aspirations and activities within and far beyond the domestic sphere.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 Jul 2017).
The Enlightenment and reading, 1714-1820 -- Educating women, patriotism and public life, 1770-1845 -- The emigrant encounters the 'new world', c.1851-1960 -- Women and the 'American way', 1900-60 -- Producers and consumers of popular culture, 1900-60 -- Sexual and aesthetic dissidences : women and the Gate Theatre, 1929-60.
The theme of this book is cultural encounter and exchange in Irish women's lives. Using three case studies: the Enlightenment, emigration and modernism, it analyses reading and popular and consumer culture as sites of negotiation of gender roles. It traces how the circulation of ideas, fantasies and aspirations which have shaped women's lives in actuality and in imagination and argues that there were many different ways of being a woman. Attention to women's cultural consumption and production shows that one individual may in one day identify with representations of heroines of romantic fiction, patriots, philanthropists, literary ladies, film stars, career women, popular singers, advertising models and foreign missionaries. The processes of cultural consumption, production and exchange provide evidence of women's agency, aspirations and activities within and far beyond the domestic sphere.
Women

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