Psyche’s Sisters: Ambivalence of Sisterhood in Twentieth-century Irish Women’s Short Stories

• Main Author: Ann Wan-lih Chang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Asociación Española de Estudios Irlandeses 2013-03-01
• Series: Estudios Irlandeses
• Subjects: Sisterhood; Ambivalence; Rivalry; Antagonism; Polarisation
• Online Access: http://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ann_Wan-lih-Chang_8.pdf

This paper examines and evaluates representations of problematic sisterly relationships in twentieth-century Irish women’s stories which display an emphasis on ambivalence and sibling rivalry.  The paper is based primarily on the literary output of Mary Lavin, Clare Boylan, Moy McCrory, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Jan Kennedy, Mary Morrissy and Claire Keegan.  The paper seeks, by reference both to feminist studies and Irish women’s short stories, to demonstrate the consequences and causes of a divided sisterhood which itself may be traced back to a suppression of expression of female solidarity embedded in western culture and manifested in western literary heritage.  Typically, such stories depict a conflict sourced in the need to develop self-identity and framed within the constraints imposed by separate social roles.  This kind of conflict results potentially in rivalry, antagonism, ambivalence, and the domination of one sibling by another.  Daughters/sisters are often depicted in these stories both as competing with each other for limited resources and also as seeking a sense of personal identity through mutual polarisation.  There are also stories into which are woven undertones of domination disguised as sisterly closeness, for which the actual motivation seems to be a repressed aspiration for intimacy.