Women in the Twilight and Identity in the Making: The Concept of Transition in Eavan Boland’s Poetry

Estudios Irlandeses

Marta Miquel-Baldellou¹ 

[1] Universitat de Lleida, Spain ;

关键词: Transition;    Liminal Images;    Female Voice;    Domesticity;    Ageing;    Diachronic Analysis;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Eavan Boland’s poetry often includes images denoting transition. The women that appear in her poems frequently undergo experiences of change and evolution. The transitional element which so often pervades Boland’s poetry is rooted in her personal experience as an Irish woman poet. In her childhood, Boland underwent the journey from Ireland to England. As a mature and married woman, she moved from the urban Dublin to the suburban Dundrum. Having imbibed the poetry of canonical Irish male poets, such as W.B.Yeats, she had to struggle to find her voice as an Irish female poet. Moreover, once she was a mother, she also became aware of the intergenerational transition and the exchange of roles ageing implies. These transitional instances can be appreciated in her thematic series of poems “Suburban Woman” (1975), “Suburban Woman: A Detail” (1983) and “Suburban Woman: Another Detail” (2001). Throughout this series of poems, thematically united, but published in different collections, Boland depicts transition as embodied by the same woman portrayed on three occasions at different points in her life. A close analysis of this series sheds light on the transition Eavan Boland underwent as a poet and as a woman.

【 授权许可】

Unknown