Italian scholar Annalisa Mastronardi has dedicated research to a consideration of James Joyce’s legacy for contemporary Irish women writers, which has been developed from her PhD at DCU. The main thrust of her argument is that, whereas male Irish writers may struggle with the pressure of comparison, women writers more so have turned to Joyce for inspiration as an experimentalist, as an innovator who could embolden them to break rules themselves.
Mastronardi offers an overview of the reception of Joyce in Irish women’s writings from the early 20 century through to the turn of the millennium. This sweep does include some discussion of Edna O’Brien, but it is surprising nonetheless that a more comprehensive account of O’Brien is not included.
Mastronardi instead chooses to focus her study primarily on three novels: The Gathering by Anne Enright, Ruth and Pen by Emilie Pine and A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride. Interviews with Enright, Pine and also Mary Morrissy are well-considered additions to this body of work, offering texture and energy to the text.
The interviews do at times, however, read as missed opportunities to deepen the discussion in favour of a more generalised conversation. It is also notable that an interview with McBride is not included. Those who have heard these authors discuss their relationship to Joyce previously are unlikely to discover new insights, enjoyable though the transcripts are to read, particularly when presented together for context.
For scholars of Joyce (especially those interested in feminist or reception studies), contemporary Irish writing, or Irish women’s writing more generally, this study should prove a valuable resource. In particular, it does an excellent job of unpacking Harold Bloom’s anxiety of influence theory in relation to how Irish women writers vs their male counterparts percieve Joyce. It is not, however, aimed at a mainstream readership.
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In her interview, Enright said she is interested herself in “a naked engagement with the text” where readers “simply read what Joyce wrote”; Mastronardi’s book offers instead a suit of scholarly armour for those who desire it.
