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Women in Ireland: An annotated bibliography
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Book Reviews
even among modernists was "love" a "female" or politics a "male" topic? When Bowles claims that Bogan's aesthetic "created a particularly female idiom" or amounted to "a female modernist tradition," the problem intensifies, for however much an "aesthetic of limitation" may illuminate Bogan's work, it has little bearing on the profusions of poets like Edna St. Vincent Millay or the experiments of writers like H. D. and Stein. There is no doubt that the modernism of poets like Yeats, Eliot, and Auden was misogynist and that 13oRan's identification with these writers helped construct the contours of her creativity. Yet, as Foucault has pointed out in the case of sexuality, prohibitions are only part of the story. Just as for many poets formalism is a stimulus as well as a constraint, so cultural proscriptions can also incite and intensify creativity. However misogynistic they were, it was Yeats who sparked Bogan's writing in the early 1920s, it was her encounter with Eliot in 1948 that broke her seven-year writer's block, and it was Auden whose witty, compassionate irony energized her late work. A theory that makes inhibition the constitutive element of Bogan's aesthetic does not fully explain how she came to write a few of the most exquisite lyrics in the English language. Bowles is not alone in reading Bogan's work as an example of the male-identified formalism Rich left behind. The achievement o f Bogan's poetry, however, suggests it is a disservice to turn a narrative of feminist awakening in the 1970s into a prescription for women poets of other historical moments, especially those who by temperament resonate not to revolutionary hope but to the darker necessities of loss, betrayal, and death. Bogan is a writer's writer, an acute critic, and a poet whose poems remain largely unread. Bowles' book takes us through these poems volume by volume, engages them in a brisk and serious manner, and provokes us to consider the limits of one of our most cherished paradigms of women's poetic development. ADALAmEMORRIS UNIVERSITYOF IOWA, U.S.A.
WOMEN IN IRELAND: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, compiled by Anna Brady, 478 pages. Greenwood Press, New York, 1988. Price cloth US$45.00. Anna Brady, an assistant professor and bibliographer for Irish Studies and Women's Studies at Queens College, NY, has provided an invaluable service in compiling Women in Ireland: An Annotated Bibliography. First, she has recognized both the lack of attention to women in Ireland and the unique opportunity the Irish case offers those examining the varying roles women have cross-culturally. Although including materials on women in Northern Ireland, coverage of the independent Republic of Ireland is much more complete, an English-speaking country with a strong Catholic tradition, the Republic is essentially a developing country within the community of industrialized nations. Second, given this insight into the potential value of research on Ireland, she has made available to a wide audience (from the armchair reader to the serious scholar) a single source which classifies the existing literature
on Irish women into fourteen areas. This valuable resource permits quick access to a variety of sources, assists in identification of areas of interest for further research, facilitates comparative studies (one wishes there was such a bibliography for every country), provides a listing of journals and sources for continually updating the bibliography and even offers bits of information in its annotations. Her organization is clear and helpful. The preface and introduction provide the reader with a framework for utilizing the bibliography, outlining the materials surveyed, their organization and limitations. The 2300plus entries spanning Irish women's lives from early Celtic times to 1985 are divided into categories of: biography and autobiography; literature, folklore and mythology; education; religion and witchcraft; community studies; marriage and the family; human sexuality, reproduction and health; psychology; law; employment and economic life; history; politics; revolutionary movements and perspectives and women's liberation. Helpful scope notes precede each section, outlining the topics included and providing cross-referencesto other relevant sections. Citations are complete and annotations are descriptive. Author and subject indices are provided to enhance accessibility to materials. As one interested in Irish women, 1 am grateful to Brady for her prodigious efforts in not only providing the bibliography but for her careful and useful annotations. Particularly striking is the fact that over one-third of the entries are in "biography and autobiography" whereas relatively few are found in 'history', 'psychology', 'community studies', "politics," or "law." It would have been helpful if each section was further categorized into two general time periods (for example, pre-1960 and post-1960 periods). One source whose omission is a disappointment is The Irish Times, which regularly has space specifically devoted to many of these topics. Although tedious to incorporate, selective citation of these articles would have been useful, particularly in providing more material on some current issues in the 1980s, such as the abortion amendment and the divorce referendum. Brady's bibliography would be an important addition to the reference section of any library and the personal library of any student of Ireland. Hopefully, the future will bring additional excellent bibliographies such as this and, as computerization is extended, online access to continuously updated versions of them. JEAN PYLE UNIVERSITY'OF LOWELL,MASSACHUSETTS,U.S.A.
DOING PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH: A FEMINIST APPROACH, by Patricia Maguire, 305 pages. The Center for International Education, School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1987. Price paperback US$8.00. As one who teaches post-positivist approaches to educational inquiry, 1 am pleased to find a book as useful as this one is in introducing students to issues that cut across various research paradigms. The book is written in a clear, non-technical language with the first half providing an overview of participatory research and the second half detailing a feminist participatory research proj-
Book Reviews
even among modernists was "love" a "female" or politics a "male" topic? When Bowles claims that Bogan's aesthetic "created a particularly female idiom" or amounted to "a female modernist tradition," the problem intensifies, for however much an "aesthetic of limitation" may illuminate Bogan's work, it has little bearing on the profusions of poets like Edna St. Vincent Millay or the experiments of writers like H. D. and Stein. There is no doubt that the modernism of poets like Yeats, Eliot, and Auden was misogynist and that 13oRan's identification with these writers helped construct the contours of her creativity. Yet, as Foucault has pointed out in the case of sexuality, prohibitions are only part of the story. Just as for many poets formalism is a stimulus as well as a constraint, so cultural proscriptions can also incite and intensify creativity. However misogynistic they were, it was Yeats who sparked Bogan's writing in the early 1920s, it was her encounter with Eliot in 1948 that broke her seven-year writer's block, and it was Auden whose witty, compassionate irony energized her late work. A theory that makes inhibition the constitutive element of Bogan's aesthetic does not fully explain how she came to write a few of the most exquisite lyrics in the English language. Bowles is not alone in reading Bogan's work as an example of the male-identified formalism Rich left behind. The achievement o f Bogan's poetry, however, suggests it is a disservice to turn a narrative of feminist awakening in the 1970s into a prescription for women poets of other historical moments, especially those who by temperament resonate not to revolutionary hope but to the darker necessities of loss, betrayal, and death. Bogan is a writer's writer, an acute critic, and a poet whose poems remain largely unread. Bowles' book takes us through these poems volume by volume, engages them in a brisk and serious manner, and provokes us to consider the limits of one of our most cherished paradigms of women's poetic development. ADALAmEMORRIS UNIVERSITYOF IOWA, U.S.A.
WOMEN IN IRELAND: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, compiled by Anna Brady, 478 pages. Greenwood Press, New York, 1988. Price cloth US$45.00. Anna Brady, an assistant professor and bibliographer for Irish Studies and Women's Studies at Queens College, NY, has provided an invaluable service in compiling Women in Ireland: An Annotated Bibliography. First, she has recognized both the lack of attention to women in Ireland and the unique opportunity the Irish case offers those examining the varying roles women have cross-culturally. Although including materials on women in Northern Ireland, coverage of the independent Republic of Ireland is much more complete, an English-speaking country with a strong Catholic tradition, the Republic is essentially a developing country within the community of industrialized nations. Second, given this insight into the potential value of research on Ireland, she has made available to a wide audience (from the armchair reader to the serious scholar) a single source which classifies the existing literature
on Irish women into fourteen areas. This valuable resource permits quick access to a variety of sources, assists in identification of areas of interest for further research, facilitates comparative studies (one wishes there was such a bibliography for every country), provides a listing of journals and sources for continually updating the bibliography and even offers bits of information in its annotations. Her organization is clear and helpful. The preface and introduction provide the reader with a framework for utilizing the bibliography, outlining the materials surveyed, their organization and limitations. The 2300plus entries spanning Irish women's lives from early Celtic times to 1985 are divided into categories of: biography and autobiography; literature, folklore and mythology; education; religion and witchcraft; community studies; marriage and the family; human sexuality, reproduction and health; psychology; law; employment and economic life; history; politics; revolutionary movements and perspectives and women's liberation. Helpful scope notes precede each section, outlining the topics included and providing cross-referencesto other relevant sections. Citations are complete and annotations are descriptive. Author and subject indices are provided to enhance accessibility to materials. As one interested in Irish women, 1 am grateful to Brady for her prodigious efforts in not only providing the bibliography but for her careful and useful annotations. Particularly striking is the fact that over one-third of the entries are in "biography and autobiography" whereas relatively few are found in 'history', 'psychology', 'community studies', "politics," or "law." It would have been helpful if each section was further categorized into two general time periods (for example, pre-1960 and post-1960 periods). One source whose omission is a disappointment is The Irish Times, which regularly has space specifically devoted to many of these topics. Although tedious to incorporate, selective citation of these articles would have been useful, particularly in providing more material on some current issues in the 1980s, such as the abortion amendment and the divorce referendum. Brady's bibliography would be an important addition to the reference section of any library and the personal library of any student of Ireland. Hopefully, the future will bring additional excellent bibliographies such as this and, as computerization is extended, online access to continuously updated versions of them. JEAN PYLE UNIVERSITY'OF LOWELL,MASSACHUSETTS,U.S.A.
DOING PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH: A FEMINIST APPROACH, by Patricia Maguire, 305 pages. The Center for International Education, School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1987. Price paperback US$8.00. As one who teaches post-positivist approaches to educational inquiry, 1 am pleased to find a book as useful as this one is in introducing students to issues that cut across various research paradigms. The book is written in a clear, non-technical language with the first half providing an overview of participatory research and the second half detailing a feminist participatory research proj-