Myth and gender in contemporary Irish drama

[Summary of the book containing this chapter:] This collection of fourteen new essays by scholars of literature, theatre, historiography, psychology and political science explores aspects of feminism in Ireland four decades after the founding of the Irish Women s Liberation Movement. The tremendous changes to the social, economic, educational and personal lives of Irish women are discussed and analyzed here in terms of the everyday performance of being a woman in Ireland, and the everyday negotiation of gender roles and expectations in Irish society in the twenty-first century. The essays address such disparate areas as the visibility of women practitioners in the 2011 Dublin Theatre Festival; stand-up comedy; dramatic representations of gender and sexuality; gender and the iconography of the nation; women and publishing; motherhood; activism; and reproductive rights. This collection speaks to national issues that continue to concern women around the globe. Contributors include: Suzanne Colleary; Sara Keating; Brenda Donohue; Charlotte Headrick and John Countryman; Tom Maguire and Carole-Anne Upton; S.E. Wilme and Mary Caulfield; Megan Buckley and Julia Walther; Lisa McGonigle; Maria Kurdi; Jacinta Byrne - Doran; Lisa Fitzpatrick; Aideen Kerr; Alyson Cambell and Suzanne Platman; Fiona Bloomer TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Performing Feminisms Lisa Fitzpatrick 1 | Women in the Dublin Theatre Festival 2011 by Sara Keating 2 | Eating Tiny Cakes in the Dark: Maeve Higgins and the Politics of Self Deprecation by Susanne Colleary 3 | Marina Carr Writing as a Feminist Act by Brenda Donohue 4 | Damned If You Do; Damned If You Don t: Competing Feminisms in Irish theatre by Charlotte Headrick & John Countryman 5 | Myth and Gender in Irish Drama by Tom Maguire & Carole-Anne Upton 6 | Gendering the Nation in Iconography and Historiography by S.E. Wilmer & Mary Caulfield 7 | Midwives to Creativity : Irish women and public(ation), 1975-1996 by Megan Buckley & Julia Walther 8 | Judgemental oul hoors : Catholicism in the work of Marian Keyes by Lisa McGonigle 9 | The Mother-Daughter Relationship in Contemporary Plays by Women by Mária Kurdi 10 | An Exploration of the Intergenerational Influences on Working Mothers by Jacinta Byrne-Doran 11 | Rape, Murder and Mayhem: Women Writing Violence by Lisa Fitzpatrick 12 | Feminism, Gender Roles, and Sexualities in Contemporary Productions of Oscar Wilde by Aideen Kerr 13 | Le Monkey Homosexuel : the role of Ruth McCarthy s queerzines in Northern Ireland in the 1990s and 2000s by Alyson Campbell & Suzanne Patman 14 | Protests, Parades and Marches: activism and extending abortion legislation to Northern Ireland by Fiona Bloome