>LITTERARIA PRAGENSIA 2024 (34) 67
ABSTRACT (en)
Following Patricia Coughlan’s prompt to question representations of women in the writing of male authors, this article sets out to analyse the representations of women in the work of Brendan Behan, more specifically his short fiction. As a workingclass writer, the issue of the portrayal of his own neighbourhood and community quickly emerged as a central concern for Behan. As Michael Pierse has argued, within the oppressed group of the Dublin working class, it was women who were most at odds with the status-quo, suffering double marginalisation through both gender and class. When looking at Behan’s depictions of women in his short stories, no straightforward conclusions may be drawn. Behan can hardly be classified as a feminist writer, but he treats most of his female characters with similar empathy as he does his male characters, allowing them the capacity to be anything from self-denying saints to “screwy bitches.” Some of his stories are written in homage to the women who raised him, others seem to criticise a society that victimises them.
KEYWORDS (en)
Brendan Behan, working-class literature, short stories, literary representations of women, feminism
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14712/2571452X.2024.67.6
SOURCES
Behan, Brendan. “After the Wake.” In After the Wake, edited by Peter Fallon, 46-52. Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 2023.
Behan, Brendan. “The Catacombs.” In After the Wake, edited by Peter Fallon, 57-97. Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 2023.
Behan, Brendan. “The Confirmation Suit.” In After the Wake, edited by Peter Fallon, 36-45. Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 2023.
Behan, Brendan. “The Last of Mrs. Murphy.” In After the Wake, edited by Peter Fallon, 16-23. Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 2023.
Behan, Brendan. The Scarperer (1966). London: Arena Books, 1987.
Behan, Brendan. “A Woman of No Standing.” In After the Wake, edited by Peter Fallon, 53-56. Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 2023.
Brannigan, John. Brendan Behan: Cultural Nationalism and the Revisionist Writer (2002). Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2014.
Brannigan, John. “‘For the Readies’: Brendan Behan, Crime Fiction, and the Dublin Underworld.” Éire-Ireland 49, no. 1&2 (2014): 92-105.
“Constitution of Ireland: Article 41.2.” Irish Statute Book. Last modified January 2020. Accessed 26 May 2024. https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en/html.
Coughlan, Patricia. “‘Bog Queens’: The Representation of Women in the Poetry of John Montague and Seamus Heaney.” In Seamus Heaney: Contemporary Critical Essays, edited by Michael Allen, 185-205. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Fallon, Peter. “Introduction.” In After the Wake, edited by Peter Fallon, 9-15. Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 2023.
Jeffs, Rae. Brendan Behan: Man and Showman. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1966.
Kearney, Colbert. The Writings of Brendan Behan. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977.
McGuinness, Frank. “Saint Behan.” Irish University Review 44, no. 1 (2014): 78-91.
Pierse, Michael. “‘A dance for all the outcasts’: Class and Postcolonialism in Brendan Behan’s An Giall and The Hostage.” Irish University Review 44, no. 1 (2014): 92-115.
Pierse, Michael. Writing Ireland’s Working Class: Dublin after O’Casey. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Samulowitz, Anke, Ida Gremyr, Erik Eriksson, and Gunnel Hensing. “‘Brave Men’ and ‘Emotional Women’: A Theory-Guided Literature Review on Gender Bias in Health Care and Gendered Norms towards Patients with Chronic Pain.” Pain Research and Management. 25 February 2018. DOI: 10.1155/2018/6358624.
Williams, Amanda C de C. “Women’s Pain Is Routinely Underestimated, and Gender Stereotypes Are to Blame – New Research.” The Conversation. 8 April 2021. https://theconversation.com/womens-pain-is-routinely-underestimatedand-gender-stereotypes-are-to-blame-new-research-158599.