Irish Women and Gender Studies (Irish Studies)

Women's Writing (Lit)

This guide points researchers to material that is valuable for research into Irish Women Writers.

Background Information

To find information on people, events, and concepts, take a look at:

Dictionaries for definitions
Biographies for information on who people are
Bibliographies for finding scholarship or lists of writer's work
Encyclopedia for short background explanations
Handbooks and Companions for chapter and/or book length discussions

Related Guides

Irish Women's Writing: Unearthing Hidden Treasures

This guide highlights resources in the Boston College Libraries that are of value to anyone conducting research on Irish women writers, especially those women who wrote during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The guide also points to sources outside of Boston College.

Boston College Libraries own many titles by and about Irish women writers from the time period mentioned above. To retrieve the titles, go to Advanced Search in catalog, change "Anywhere in record" to "Local Collection," and search for "Irish Women Writers, Nineteenth, Early Twentieth Century".

A Few Authors to Consider

Links go to the BC catalog with access points for electronic and print copies:

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973)
Kate O’Brien (1897-1974)
Dorothy Macardle (1889-1958)
Molly Keane (1904-1996)
Mary Lavin (1912-1996)
Maeve Brennan (1917-1993)
Norah Hoult (1898-1984)
Teresa Deevy (1894-1963)

Digital Collections

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
A database of primary documents that includes the diaries and letters of women from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Access writings by full text searching (simple or advanced) or by exploring the tables of contents.
Literature Online This link opens in a new window
Literature Online (LION) combines the texts of over 355,000 literary works with a vast library of key criticism and reference resources.
Women Writers Online This link opens in a new window
Women Writers Online is a full-text collection of early women's writing in English, published by the Women Writers Project at Northeastern University. It includes full transcriptions of texts published between 1526 and 1850, focusing on materials that are rare or inaccessible.

Critical Editions/Surveys

Ireland's Women: Writings Past and Present by Donavan, Kate, et al.
Call Number: O'Neill Library: PR8836.5.W66 I74x 1995)
Publication Date: 1995
Excerpts of literature by women and men that describes women from Queen Maeve to Mary Robinson. The excerpts are drawn from myths, poems, letters, newspapers, novels, plays, and songs. Organized by topic: bodies, "girly years," love, marriage and family, money and power, shapechangers, heroism, religion, women alone, talk, and time.
Irish Women's Writing, 1878-1922 by Anna Pilz; Whitney Standlee (eds.)
Call Number: JSTOR
Publication Date: 2016
This collection of essays by leading scholars explores how women writers including Emily Lawless, L. T. Meade, Katharine Tynan, Lady Gregory, Rosa Mulholland, Ella Young and Beatrice Grimshaw used their work to advance their own private and public political concerns through astute manoeuvrings both in the expanding publishing industry and against the partisan expectations of an ever-growing readership.
Irish Women Writers: New Critical Perspectives by D'hoker, Alke (ed.)
Call Number: Ebook Central
Publication Date: 2010
Poetry by Women in Ireland by Lucy Collins (ed.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks PR8857 .C65 2012
Publication Date: 2012
This unique anthology of poetry written by women in Ireland 1870-1970 includes more than one hundred and eighty poems by fifteen women of diverse backgrounds, experiences and creative aims. Challenging the assumption that little poetry of note was written by women during the period, this richand original collection reveals the range of their achievement and the lasting value of their work.
A Survey of Catholic Literature by Brown, Stephen J., S.J.
Call Number: O'Neill Library: PN485.B7 1949
Publication Date: 1949
The survey deals not only with books and authors, but 'literary currents' and revivals as well. Irish women writers are featured in the chapter entitled Modern Irish Literature. The survey of Catholic literature aims to select 'whatever in this literature was deemed notable or characteristic'. It is international in scope, begins coverage from the early centuries of Christianity and continues up to the time of publication (1949).

Literary Anthology

The Cabinet of Irish Literature: Selections from the Works of the Chief Poets, Orators, and Prose Writers of Ireland: with Biographical Sketches and Literary Notices
Call Number: Hathi and Burns Reading Room Use Only PR8833 .R4 1880 IRISH
Publication Date: 1880
The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Vols IV and V by Angela Bourke
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks PB1421 .F54 2002
ISBN: 185918281X
Publication Date: 2002
11 years in the making, featuring the work of over 700 individual writers and harnessing the skills and expertise of dozens of scholars, The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volumes IV and V is without doubt one the most important publishing events in Ireland for many years.
GRAIL, The Galway Resource for Anglo-Irish Literature
Call Number: O'Neill 1st Floor Microforms Index PR8833 .G724 1988 Index
Publication Date: 1997
Microfiche set developed by University College, Galway and the National Library of Ireland.
Irish Literature Since 1990 by Scott Brewster (ed.); Michael Parker (ed.)
Call Number: JSTOR and O'Neill Stacks PR8753 .I75 2009
Publication Date: 2009
This volume explores the meaning of republicanism in contemporary Ireland. While this has often been identified simply with nationalism, the book examines the connections, comparisons and contrasts between Irish republicanism and other strands of republican politics: the ideology and practice of official French republicanism, the broader European and American civic republican tradition and the contemporary revival of this tradition of citizenship. Academics from different disciplines, along with statesmen and politicians from different political perspectives, are brought together to examine the relationship of historical and contemporary Irish republicanism to the wider republican theoretical tradition.
Pillars of The House: an anthology of verse by Irish women from 1690 to the present by A. A. Kelly (ed.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks PR8853 .P54x 1987
ISBN: 086327143X
Publication Date: 1998
This collection extends through 17th-century verse to the work of some of Ireland's leading modern poets, allowing the reader to followthe development of Irish women's poetry during the past 250 years and to see the way it has reflected the country's social and political history.
Unveiling Treasures: the Attic guide to the published works of Irish women literary writers : drama, fiction, poetry by Anne O. Weekes (ed.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks PR8733 .W33x 1993
ISBN: 1855940671
Publication Date: 1993
The first comprehensive directory of over 200 Irish women literary writers unveils a listing of women who have published a volume of drama, Verse or fiction from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.
Voices on the Wind: women poets of the Celtic twilight by Ellis Ni Dhuibhne (ed.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks PR8853 .V65 1995
ISBN: 1874597235
Publication Date: 1995
This anthology admirably returns to modern Irish women some of their literary birthright--Nuala N#65533; Dhomhnaill. Features the works of Katherine Tynan, Susan Mitchell, Dora Sigerson Shorter, Ethna Carberry, Eva Gore Booth, and Nora Hopper Chesson.
Wildish Things: an anthology of new Irish women's writing by Ailbhe Smyth (ed.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks PR8836.W6 W54 1989
ISBN: 0946211736
Publication Date: 1989
Texts in English or Irish with English translations.

Websites

British Fiction 1800-1829: a Database of Production, Circulation & Reception
Includes bibliographical records of 2,272 works of fiction by approximately 900 authors, along with a large number of contemporary materials, such as newspaper advertisements and reviews.
British Women Playwrights around 1800
This site "facilitates scholarship and discussion of these neglected playwrights and supports the work of ... scholars engaged in [enhancing] scholarship and teaching about this segment of dramaturgical history."
British Women Romantic Poets, 1789 - 1832
"The British Women Romantic Poet's Project is producing an online scholarly archive consisting of E-text editions of poetry by British and Irish women written (not necessarily published) between 1789 (the onset of the French Revolution) and 1832 (the pass
A Celebration of Women Writers
The Celebration provides a comprehensive listing of links to biographical and bibliographical information about women writers and complete published books written by women.
Emory Women Writers Resource Project
The Emory Women Writers Resource Project is a collection of edited and unedited texts by women writing in English from the seventeenth century through the nineteenth century
Gender Inn : the Women's and Gender Studies Database
gender Inn is a searchable database providing access to over 7,500 records pertaining to feminist theory, feminist literary criticism and gender studies focusing on English and American literature.
The Orlando Project
The goal of the Orlando project is to write the first full scholarly history of women's writing in the British Isles. Work on the project allows the conducting of an experiment in humanities computing, while providing training and scholarly community for
Victorian Database Online
Interdisciplinary in scope, the Victorian Database indexes 500+ journals.
The Victorian Women Writers Project
Works by British women writers of the 19th century. Database includes anthologies, novels, political pamphlets, poetry and verse drama.
Women in Modern Irish Culture a Database of Irish Women's Writing
A bibliographical database of Irish women writers, who wrote in both Irish and English, between 1800 and 2005. The database includes novels, articles, poems and other types of writing and provides biographical details, where available.
Women Romantic Era Writers
Contains electronic texts by women writers, annuals, anthologies and gift books from the Romantic Period, electronic text archives, related websites and more.

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Irish Women and Gender Studies (Irish Studies)

Women's Writing (Lit)

Background Information

Related Guides

Irish Women's Writing: Unearthing Hidden Treasures

A Few Authors to Consider

Digital Collections

Critical Editions/Surveys

Literary Anthology

Websites