James Joyce’s Legacies in Contemporary Irish Women’s Writing

James Joyce’s Legacies in Contemporary Irish Women’s Writing is a ground-breaking study that, for the first time, explores in depth the influence of James Joyce on Irish women writers, from his contemporaries to more recent voices. With a particular focus on Anne Enright’s The Gathering, Eimear McBride’s A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing and Emilie Pine’s Ruth & Pen, this book examines how Irish women writers have engaged with Joyce’s legacy.

Unlike their male counterparts, who have often felt overshadowed by Joyce’s influence, Irish women writers have embraced and expanded upon his work, viewing it not as a constraint but as an opening to new creative possibilities. This book will be of particular value to Joyce scholars working in feminism and reception studies, as well as students of Irish literature and women’s writing. It offers fresh insights into the evolving landscape of Irish literature and complicates Harold Bloom’s theory of the Anxiety of Influence, demonstrating how women writers perceive canonical figures like Joyce not as rivals, but as trailblazers.

Annalisa Mastronardi holds a PhD in Irish Literature from Dublin City University, where she explored the legacies of James Joyce’s work in contemporary Irish women’s writing.