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Inglis, Tom. The Moral Monopoly: The Rise and Pal/ of the Catholic Church in Modern Ireland. 2nd ed. Dublin: UCD Press, 1998. Print. lona Institute for Religion and Society. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. CHAPTER 6 Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916. Ed. John Paul Riquelme. New York: Norton, 2007. Print. Kavanagh, Patrick. 'The Great Hunger'. Complete Poems. Ed. Antoinette Quinn. London: Penguin, 2004. 63-89. Print. Psychological Resilience in Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. NewYork: Columbia UP, 1982. Print. Emma Donoghue's Room MacCurtain, Margaret. 'Godly Burden: Catholic Sisterhoods in 20th-Century Ireland'. Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland. Ed. Anthony Bradley and Maryann Valiulis. Amherst: U Massachusetts P, 1997. 245-56. Print. McGahern, John. Amongst Women. London: Faber & Faber, 1990. Print. Marisol MoralesLadrón McGoldrick, Monica. 'lrish Families'. Ethnicityand Family Therapy. 3rd ed. Eds. Monica McGoldrick, et al. New York: Guilford, 2005. 595-615. Print. McNay, Lois. Against Recognition. Cambridge: Polity, 2008. Print. Emma Donoghue's Room achieved international ---. Gender and Agency: Reconfiguring the Subject in Feminist and Social acclaim the moment it was published in August 2010 Studies. Cambridge: Polity, 2000. Print. and, within the year, it had been awarded a considerable 1 Mitchell, Juliet. Siblings: Sex and Violence. Cambridge: Polity, 2003. Print. number ofliterary prizes. This hit novel, the story of the sur­ Moore, Brian. Judith Hearne. London: Deutsch, 1955. Print. vival of a captive mother and her child under appalling circumstances and Murphy, Maureen. 'The Fionnuala Factor: Irish Sibling Ernigrationat the Turn of th�ir later adjustment to 'real' life, has attracted readers worldwide, mostly the Century'. Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland. Eds. Anthony Bradley dnven by the apparent connection of the plot with the actual experiences and Maryann Valiulis. Amherst: U Massachusetts P, 1997. 85-101. Print. of long captivity undergone by Elisabeth Fritzl and Natascha Kampusch ' Murphy, Tom. Bailegangaire: The Story of Bailegangaire and How it Came by its among ot hers. 2 However, as the author herself has explained these sto- Appellation. Dublin: Gallery, 1986. Print. ries only constituted the tip of the iceberg since her interest did not líe in --. A Whistle in the Dark. 1961. Dublin: Gallery, 1984. Print. > writing about the side-effects of such traumatic hardships but, quite the Ní Chuilleanáin, Eiléan.

Considering the relevance of this concept to the development of the plot, in recent years she has been pegged as an Irish-Canadian writer. Similarly the aim of the present essay is to analyse the mother-son dyad as the pillar to Brian Moore, she holds a liminal position that places her between two upon which the child's eventual hardiness is erected, thereby converting literary traditions. As she herself asserts: 'I'm seen as Irish sometimes the novel into a celebration of life rather than a dramatic story of the Canadian sometimes, even vaguely British sometimes, and I'm probabl; human struggle and agony of survival. assumed to be American by the Americans who make up the majority of Told entirely from the perspective of a 5-year old boy, Jade, Room is my readership. But that's just how it is. I grew up reading books fromjust divided into five parts, which follow his developmental stages as he per­ about anywhere and I stilldo; I believe a writer's imagination carries no ceives his surroundings, during and after confinement and also outside passport' (Donoghue, 'Dancing'). The fact that Room is set in the USA3 and within society, with the effect of challenging the meanings culture and that it was conceived as a universal story with a fairy tale quality,4 has ascribed to such roles as parenthood and education. Believing that his Irish literature is indisputable, refer to the property of matter to resist breakage or to recover its original 86 M.M. LADRÓN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE IN EMMA DONOGHUE'S ROOM 87 form in spite of being deformed under pressure. In psychology, the result Although most reviews of Donoghue's Room have pivoted on the of being posítively transformed by an apparently unbearable experíence traumatic sources of the novel, maínly the cases of Elisabeth Fritzl and requires the conjunction of severa! components: the facing of risk, trauma, Natascha Kampusch in Austria, Sabine Dardenne in Belgium, or Jaycee maltreatment or threat to human development; an individual display of Lee Dugard in California (Burns; Barr; Derbyshire; Landau), the author competence to cope with this; resistance to and recovery from the inci­ has been at pains to correct this view and to explain that she was initially dent; and positive adaptation through the confident use of the individu­ inspired by these stories,8 but that her intention was to look at child devel­ al's own psychological resources to overcome further hardships (Masten, opment and parent !ove in such a way that 'it would not be a horror or Best and Garmezy). Most research conducted in this area has followed the sob story, but a journey from one world to another' (Burns). Her research Positive Psychology approach, which emerged in the 1990s as an alterna­ included reading about feral children, family psychology, children born in tive to the mainstream psychological framework that largely focused on captivity and conceived through rape, child development, children raised the identification and classification of pathological forms of behavior. As in abusive households, resilience and even life in Nazi concentration camps Vera, Carbelo and Vecina have explained: 'Concentration exclusively on the (Donoghue, 'Writing Room'). In addition, the author's interest in telling potential pathological effectof the traumatic experience has contributed to the story from the limited but blissful perspective of the child, rather tl1an the development of a "culture of victimhood", which has seriously biased from the mother's dreadful endurance of her 7-year incarceration, clearly psychological research and theory and led to a pessimistic view of human directs the narration into a more hopeful reading.9 It will consequently nature' (41). In contrast, Positive Psychology explores the conditions and be Jack's naYve and fresh look at reality that serves as the device through circumstances that lead human beings to develop their strongholds, posi­ which Donoghue will introduce a process of de-familiarization that will tive emotions and affirmativetraits (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi; Walsh allow readers to maintain a distance from the horrors and to perceive a 130; Peterson and Seligman). more bearable reality, while at the same time his perspective will question The concept of resilience carneinto common use back in the 1970s to received assumptions about education and etbics. refer to a certain protection against stressors that only certain personalities Tbroughout the novel, Donogbue seems to be suggesting that Ma's developed (Kobasa). As a subject of study, a decade later it was widespread, ability to meet Jack's developmental needs as he grows springs frominnate and the tendency was to believe that there were 'invulnerable' children who mothering skills, which are presented as a combination of natural instinct manifested individual resistance to adversity (Anthony). However, further and intuition. In spite of tbe absence of social training, Jack's upbringing is investigation has shown that this psychological construct is not merely innate notably rich in stimuli and affection, two key components of positive cbild but rather tl1e result of an interaction betweenthe individual and the environ­ development. Altbougb bis microcosm in confinement is literally reduced ment involving both social and psychological mechanisms (Patterson 354; to an eleven-by-eleven foot room, bis mother fuels his imagination witb Walsh 130; Vera, Carbelo and Vecina; Rutter; Zautra, Hall and Murray).6 stories, rhymes and songs, and creatively enricbes his mind by inventing a The dynarnics that lie behind emotional, cognitive and socio-cultural fac­ hundred uses for inanimate disposable objects. She protects him from the tors influencing human development are the result of temperament, farnily excesses of TV, that 'rot[s] our brains', letting bim watcb only one show upbringing and social ambience (Rutter; Zautra, Hall and Murray).7 As such, at a time, and sbe keeps bim away from tbe damage tbat tbe awareness of the conditions that can prompt a resilient response range from personality an alternative existence could cause bim, 'mut[ing] commercials because features such as self-esteem and self-confidence, to social support, the per­ they musb our brains even faster' ( 11). In spite of tbe adverse circum­ ception of life as meaningful or the capacity to discríminate between positive stances-and surprisingly considering that sbe was only nineteen wben and negativeexperiences (Vera, Carbelo and Vecina 44). Bearing these points she was kidnapped-she is depicted as a sensible motber capable of fulfill­ in mind, my contention is that in Donoghue's novel, and in spite of the ing Jack's needs giving meaning to everything tbey do through a daily apparent restrictive and appalling lives of mother and child while in captivity, routine that will contribute to their physical and mental well-being. Her most of these features will be activated as the result of the combination of concerns about his education go from teaching him to read and write at a competent parenting with the absence of societal expectations. precocious age and developing his imagination through recycling things 88 M.M. LADRÓN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE IN EMMA DONOGHUE'S ROOM 89 into useful tools and toys, to setting meals at a regular time, maintaining When Ma decides that it is time to tell Jack the story ofher life, she uses personal hygiene, practicing physical exercise, doing the cleaning, sing­ Atice in Wonderland to explain to him that there is an alternative reality. ing nursery rhymes, laughing together and praying every night.10 As the But as she uses fiction to mimic reality, he then thinks that his mum 'lived author has explained, in TV one time' (84). When she devises the second plan to escape, she again tells Jack that it will be an emulation of how the Count of Monte it can seem a bit absurd and sad, like they are prisoners passing the time, Cristo escaped from the dungeon passing for his dead friend, which is but it has actually given Jack the mental tools he'll need when he's out there what he finally does. However, his first contact with 'real' life shocks him: in the real world. She's managed to create the sense in him that there is a meaning and a pattern to their days. Basically, I think, if she didn't have Thing sliding in the sky that I think they're trees. And houses and lights on sorne kind of faith that one of these days they'll get out, she would have giant poles and sorne cars everything zooming. lt's like a cartoon l'm inside curled up in the comer long ago. ('Donoghue. Benevolent') but messier. I'm holding on to the edge of the truck, it's ali hard and cold. The skyis the most enormous, over there there's a pink orange bit but the rest From the very beginning of the novel, reality is presented as a construc­ is gray... My eyes aren'tworking right, I'm too scared to be scave. (139-140) tion, whose validity relies on the point of view of the onlooker and not on shared common perceptions. The secluded experience is thus conversely Although he wants to ask for help, his lack of experience in talking to any comprehended by mother and child. But the fact that his joyful igno­ other human being silences him. When the police finally findhis mother, rance contrasts with her woeful submission does not make such reality any the only thing he wants to do is go back to Room, the place where he fe els less authentic for either of the pair. While the mother's view is deliber­ comfort and solace. ately limited and mediated by that ofJack, who has the agency to tell the Their escape, which marks the ending oftheir nightmare, is only appar­ story-and it is only the adult reader who is privileged to read through ent since they will now have to face the no less stressful experience of her emotional states-the child has been made to believe that the place adapting to society and of being accepted by it. Jack's first contact with where they live is the real world. Jack is convinced that reality is only con­ the 'real' world is, consequently, more traumatic than his incarceration. stituted by the tangible things they possess, while unreal things only exist His physical looks are different, his gender is misread because he has long in an 'Outer Space' (8), on television or in their imagination: 'Boys are hair and wears a ponytail, he looks extremely weak and under-sized, he TV but they kind of look like me, the me in Mirror that isn't real either, is still being breastfed and he has been home-schooled. The puzzlement just a picture' (54). However, as his mind matures, his musings about in the eyes of the onlookers symbolizes the ambivalence of a society that the boundaries between these two realms also grow. At one point in the has to face difference and imperfection. Due to his public exposure, Jack novel, he realizes that the pain killers his mother takes are announced on has now to face responses that oscillate from severe judgementalism to television, and he becomes utterly confused because this causes reality and sympathy, from horror to pity and from curiosity to morbidity. People non-reality to coincide. Although Ma explains that television is made of findMa and Jack's bond unsettling beca use J ack is the grotesque son of a 'pictures of real things', this astonishing discovery leads him to wonder rapist, no matter how much Ma insists that the boy only belongs to her, whether people on the television are then 'real for real' (59). This blurring that he is 'the dead spit of me' (7). He is cruelly described by the media of boundaries is essential for the development of the plot inasmuch as as a 'pint-sized hero', as a 'bonsai boy' who is expected to have long-term Jack's world is informed by the fantasy of the fairy tales Ma tells him and developmental delay who 'goes up and clown stairs on ali fourslike a mon­ by the cartoons he watches on television. In fact,initial ly, he does not dare key' (215). Dehumanized by both his biological father and by his grand­ to be part ofhis mother's plan to escape and only decides to save her when father, who both address him with the impersonal 'it' (36, 226), Jack is he adopts the role of a fairy talehero: 'l'm Prince JackerJack, I have to be transformed into a weird thing that can be scrutinized, judged, used and JackerJack or the worms crawl in ... I wish Dora [the Explorer] could see abused at society's own convenience. As Donoghue has explained with me, she'd sing the "We Did It" song' (139). regard to the writing ofthe second half of the novel, her intention was to 90 M.M. LADRÓN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESJLIENCE IN EMMA DONOGHUE'S ROOM 91 let Ma and Jack be seen as freaks, as 'a lost tribe' with their own 'strange his sensory and spatial perception need to readjust before he can fully kind of island culture, island religion, and a pidgin form of English. I integrate into society. Nevertheless, his (un)natural developmental pro­ found that if I used these anthropological concepts, it stopped me from cess outside society and under appalling circumstances, together witl1 his seeing them as being stunted' (Landau). In turning them into the reposi­ singular upbringing, both protective and encouraging, have triggered bis tory of fe ars, wrongs and other kinds of deviations that epitomize the idea resilient competence. Ma's definition of a child-care centre as 'a building of the Other, the author ultimately challenges the success of any society at where parents send kids when they're busy doing other stuff' (213) seems perpetuating its own set of normative ethical assumptions about the self. most appropriate here since J ack's close monitoring by his mother has in Nevertheless, in spite ofthe gulfthat separates Ma and Jack fromsoci­ fact provided him with invaluable personal strength, high self-esteem and ety, their mental equilibrium is not shattered because they have developed psychological well-being. mechanisms that protect them against a hostile environment. In the case The complexities and ambivalences of mothering are other motifs that ofJack, although he is physically weak and appears to be vulnerable to the run throughout the novel. Donoghue has explained tl1at 'motherhood demands of society, his fresh and nai've outlook on reality frees him from "even under ideal circumstances" has elements of nightmare as well as fai­ being critica! about cultural mores that are taken far granted. One of the rytale, sci-fias well as realism. It's a trip like no other, and it can occasion­ most obvious instances of this is revealed the very first day of their free­ ally feel (let's admit it, shall we, mothers of the world?) like a locked room. dom, when Ma and Jack are sent to hospital. Jade is amazed at everything And so can childhood, as I recall: kids are stuck with the parents they get, he sees but he longs to go back to Room because he is not the centre of just as we are stuck with them' ('Writing Room'). 11 In the novel, Ma per­ his mother's attention any more, he cannot be rocked and breastfed in forms no other role and is not even seen as a young woman until halfway front of people, and has to wear a mask since he is not immune to germs through the narration, when she recovers her name, Sharon, and with it that could kili him. As he has never interacted with people befare, he can­ the need to reclaim an identity ofher own. In spite ofher continuous failed not read social behaviours or emotions, takes everything literally and fe els attempts over the years to escape, ofher fantasiesofbeing rescued, such as utterly confused. Ironically enough, to keep him entertained, the nurses digging a hole, flashing lights, screaming and leaving notes in trash bags, let him watch television while they check bis mother over, but what he she acknowledges that she only felt saved when she foundherself pregnant sees on screen is farmore brutal than anything he has experienced during and began to be polite to her captor with the sole purpose of keeping the their confinement. He watches how they are both in the news, and the baby safe. It is not until the end ofthe novel when she confesses that Jack description offered by the media is as disproportionate as it is malign: was her second child but that she had lost her first baby, a girl, after Old 'The despot's victims have an eerie pallar and appear to be in a border­ Nick had refused to provide medica! assistance when the baby got tangled line catatonic state after the long nightmare of their incarceration ... The in the umbilical cord. Thus, motherhood is not presented as an antidote to malnourished boy, unable to walk, is seen here lashing out convulsively the horrors and the regular sexual abuse she had to endure. At night, Ma at sorne of his rescuers' ( 165). The predominantly negative way society hides Jack away in the wardrobe when Old Nick comes in order to protect welcomes them can be read as the result of a normative construction of him fromrealizing what is going on although he always hears the 'creales' childhood and motherhood. of the bed: 'tonight it's 273 creaks. I always have to count till he malees Jack, who had never experienced anxiety or sleep problems befare, is that gaspy sound and stops' (37). Por this reason, the author's delving now troubled by nightmares at the hospital and insists to the doctor that into maternal !ove, as she has indicated, includes the positive emotion of he needs to go back to Room because 'actually he's got it backwards. 'life-saving' as much as the pain that appears when the room is 'actually In Room I was safe and Outside is the scary' (219). Viewed strictly in too restrictive far both ofthem' ('Donoghue. Benevolent'; emphasis in the medica! terms, Jack has grown up in an unhealthy environment that has original). When Ma's occasional depressive mood forces her to stay in damaged his physical and psychological development. As the doctor tells bed ali

strangeness of Jack's Room somehow universal-a sort of microcosm of 10. Interestingly, during the interview on television, Ma admits that she is not our world ... We all start in a very small place (the womb) and emerge into a religious person but that she felt that religion could give meaning to their a bigger one, then again in childhood we gradually move from a narrow lives. Donoghue has noted that while most reviewers have missed the reli­ social setting to a bewilderingly complex, even internacional one. So Jack's gious overtones of the novel, the Irish reviewers have picked them up. To journey is everyone's journey, just speeded up' (Tonkin). . . her, apart from the obvious Mary-Jesus connection, God's appearance 5. QuotingLionel Johnson, Jeffers concludes that: 'After ali, who 1s to deC1de should only be seen as part of a fairy tale, in connection to the hope Ma what is, absolutely and definitely,the Celtic and Irish note? And now, hav­ wants to invest in her son ('Donoghue. Benevolent'). ing fullyentered into a new era of economic, cultural ethnic, and creative 11. In fact, the novel is dedicated to her children, Finn and Una, 'my best production, it is even more difficult to "decide," "absolutely and defini­ works', and is followed by a poem that contrasts the usual concerns of tively," what is or what should be "Irish" in the twenty-first century' ( 179). parents with the blissful ignorance of children (Donoghue, Room v-vi). 6. However, as Patterson explains: 'Psychologists wanting to differentiate 12. As Walsh has explained, in recent decades the definition of the 'normal' between resilience as a trait versus a process have recommended that the family has been transformeddue to social and economic advances that have term resiliency be used to refer to an individual trait (much like ego-resil­ brought different constructions of farruly functioning in diversity iency) and that resilience be used to describe the process of successfully (131-132). overcoming adversity' (352). 7. The concept of resilience, as many other psychological constructs, is cul­ turally defined. Hence, nowadays there are two schools, the French and WoRKS CITED the North American, which understand the term differently. While the The French associates resilience with post-traumatic thriving, since the concept Anthony, Elwyn J. 'Risk, Vulnerability, and Resilience: An Overview'. Invulnerable Child. includes not only the capacity to overcome hardship but also to learn Eds. Elwyn J. Anthony and Bertram J. Cohler. New York: Guilford, 1987. 3-48. Print. something fromit and to bounce back, the North American school is more Barr, Nicola. 'Room by Emma Donoghue'. The Observer. restrictive in its meaning and considers it to refer only to the process of 1 Aug. 2010. Web. 3 Aug. 2010. facingup to an adverse circumstance that leaves the person psychologically Bonanno, George A. 'Loss, Trauma and unscathed (Vera, Carbelo and Vecina 43). Human Resilience'. American Psychologist 59.1 (2004): 20-8. Print. 8. In one interview, she clearly affirms: 'I wouldn't mind if they just men­ Burns, John. 'Profile: Emma Donoghue'. The Sunday Times. tioned it [the case of JosefFritzl]. I've been hounded by this! I keep saying 22 Nov. 2009. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. "suggested by" or "triggered by", and then in the arride it will say "her Derbyshire, Jonathan. 'The NS Books novel about Josef Fritzl" ... Oh, God, it's been a curse' ('Donoghue. Interview: Emma Donoghue'. New Statesman. 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 5 Oct. Benevolent'). In another, she explains that 'Room was only inspired by, not 2010. Donoghue, Emma. 'Dancing With Myself: based on, any real-Jife case. I went out of my way to make Ma and Jack's Emma Donoghue Interviews Emma Donoghue'. Sea Minar. 20 Sept. 2010. circumstances different from ali the ones I was reading about; there is no Web. 21 Sept. 2010. ---. Room. London: Picador, 2010. Print. case I encountered which features a grown woman (not a child or adoles­ Room: HarperCollins cent) imprisoned by a stranger (not a family member) and raising a child. ---. 'Writing Why and How'. Canada, 2010. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. Which meant that I did not feel in any way burdened by the facts of those 'Emma Donoghue. SorneBenevolent Force'. Canadian Interviews. notorious cases. What I took from the Fritzl case ... was simply the idea of 29 Oct. 201O. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. living in confinement, and of a boy who thinks his small world is the only Jeffers, Jennifer M. The Irish Novel at the End of the Twentieth one there is' (Tonkin). Century: Gender, Bodies, and Power. New York: Palgrave, 9. In her own words: 'Our culture is constantly telling stories about psychos 2002. Print. Kobasa, Suzanne C. 'Stressful Life Events, who capture women. I deliberately kept my psycho out of the spotlight ... Personality, and Health: An Inquiry into Hardiness'. ]ournal of Personalityand Social Psychology 37.1 (1979): 1-11. It was not Old Nick's evil that fascinated me, but the resilience of Ma and Print. Jack: the nitty-gritties of their survival, their trick of more-or-less thriving Landau, Emily. 'Living Room'. The Walrus Room'). Blog. 25 Oct. 2010. Web. 28 Jan. under apparently unbearable conditions' (Donoghue, 'Writing 2011. 98 M.M. LADRÓN

Masten, Ann S. 'Ordinary Magic: Lessons from Research on Resilience in Human Development'. American Psychologist56 (2001): 227-38. Print. ---. 'Resilience in Individual Development: Successful Adaptation despite Risk and Adversity'. Risk and Resilience in Inner-city America: Challenges and CHAPTER 7 Prospects. Ecls.Margaret C. Wang and Edmund W. Gordon. Hillsdale: Erlbaum, 1994. 3-25. Print. Masten, Ann S., Karin M. Best, and Norman Garmezy. 'Resilience and The Fallen Sex Revisited: Imperfect Celibacy Development: Contributions from the Study of Children who Overcome Adversity'. Development and Psychopathology 2 (1990): 425-44. Print. in Mary Rose Callaghan' s A Bit of a Scandal O'Hanlon, Bill. Thriving Through Crisis. Turn Tragedy and Trauma into Growth and Change. New York: Penguin, 2005. Print. Park, Crystal L. 'Stress-Related Growth and Thriving through Coping: The Roles of Personality and Cognitive Processes'. Journal of Social Issues 54.2 (1997): Auxiliadora Pérez-Vides 267-77. Print. Patterson, Joan M. 'Integrating Family Resilience and Family Stress Theory'. ]ournal of Marriage and Family 64.2 (May 2002): 349-60. Print. Peterson, Christopher, and Martin Seligman. Character, Strengths and Virtues:A On an international scale and for nearly a century, the projection of Irish Handbook and Classiftcation. Oxford: OxfordUP, 2004. Print. cultural difference rested chiefly on the island's unique attachment to reli­ Rutter, Michael. 'Developing Concepts in Developmental Psychopathology'. gion. In the Republic, debates about the grip ofCatholic discourses upon Developmental Psychopathology and Wellness: Genetic and Environmental the articulation of post-colonial and nationalist consciousness have taken Influences. Ed. James J. Hudziak. Washington: American Psychiatric Publishing, place across the broad spectrum of disciplines in the humanities and social 2008. 3-22. Print. sciences (Kenny; Fuller, Irish Catholicism and 'New Ireland'; Inglis, Global Seligman, Martin E. P., and Mihaly Csikszentrnihalyi. 'Positive Psychology: An Ireland, Moral Monopoly and 'Religious Field'; Ferriter). Critics, artists Introduction'. American Psychologist55 (2000): 5-14. Print. and authors have widely stressed the imbrications of the Catholic Church Tonkin, Boyd. 'Room with a Panoramic View: How Emma Donoghue's Latest Novel Aims to Tell a Universal Story'. The Independent. 6 Aug. 2010. Web. 6 and the State for the enactment of legislation and political sovereignty, Aug. 2010. thus raising troubling questions about the extent of Ireland's theocratic Ue, Tom. 'An Extraordinary Act of Motherhood: A Conversation with Emma status. Yet, there is an added dimension of the monopoly of the Church Donoghue'. Journal ofGender Studies 21.1 (2012): 101-6. Print. in Ireland that is equally engaging, and it has to do with the collision Vera Poseck, Beatriz, Begoña Carbelo Baquero, and María Luisa Vecina Jiménez. between the institutional power artefacts of Catholicism and the personal 'The Traumatic Experience from Positive Psychology: Resiliency and Post­ encounters people have with them. The tension is by no meaos exclusive traumatic Growth'. Papeles del psic6logo 27.1 (2006): 40-9. Print. Walsh, Froma. 'A Family Resilience Framework: Innovative Practice Applications'. Family Relations 51.2 (Apr. 2002): 130-37. Print. Werner, Emmy E., and Ruth S. Smith. Vulnerable but Invincible: A Study of The author wishes to acknowledge the funding provided by the Span.ish Min.istry Resilient Children. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982. Print. ofEconomy and Competitiveness for the writing ofth.is essay (Research Project Zautra, Alex J., John S. Hall, and Kate E. Murray. 'Resilience: A New Definition FEM2010-18142). of Health for People and Communities'. Handbook of Adult Resilience. Eds. John W. Reich, Alex J. Zautra and John S. Hall. New York: Guilford, 2010. 3-34. Print. A. Pérez-Vides (CBJ) Dpto. Filología Inglesa, University ofHuelva, Huelva, Spain

© The Author(s) 2017 99 L.M. González-Arias (ed.), National Identities and Imperftctions in Contemporary Irish Literature, DOI 10.1057 /978-1-137-47630-2_7