DOCSLIB.ORG

A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland Discourse and Identity: A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland Christina Quinlan, BSc, MSc, Dip. Stats Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dublin City University School of Communications January 2006 Discourse and Identity: A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland Christina M Quinlan B.Sc. M. Sc. Dip. Stats Thesis presented for the qualification of Ph.D. to the School of Communications, DCU January 2006 Supervisor: Dr. Barbara O’Connor ! hereby certify that this material, which 1 now submit for assessment on the programme o f study leading to the award o f Ph.D. is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed — ^Candidate) rD N o.:99145901 Date: ¿ L m c^ In memory of my father, Tom Quinlan. I would like to thank all of the people who supported and encouraged me in this research. I would like to thank my mother Mary-Jo Quinlan, all my family, and in particular my beloved nephews Daniel Lanigan and Tom Quinlan. I would like to thank all o f my friends for encouraging and supporting me in the work. I would particularly like to thank Bemie Morris, Karen Talbot, Grainne Blair, Maria Luddy, Muireann NT Dhuigneain and Barbara Henry. I would like to thank the School of Communications for funding the research and for supporting me through it. I would particularly like to thank my supervisor Dr. Barbara O’Connor, for her years of critical engagement with the work, without which neither the thesis nor I would have grown and developed as we have. I would like to thank Professor Farrel Corcoran, for reading the thesis and for his many helpful and encouraging comments on it. I would like to thank The Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform, and particularly Mr. Sean Alyward, Secretary General, for the years of interest, support and encouragement. I would like to thank the Irish Prison Service, for giving me access to the prisons and the Director General, Mr. Brian Purcell, for on-going support. I would particularly like to thank Governor John Lonergan o f Mountjoy Prison, for allowing the research, for supporting the research and for encouraging both it and me in every possible way. I would like to thank Governor Kathleen McMahon of the Dochas Centre, for years of friendship, good humour, support and encouragement. I would like to thank Governor Pat Laffan and ACO Eamon Mullane of Limerick Prison, for all the help they gave me. I would like to thank all of the participants in the research. In particular I would, above all, like to thank all of the imprisoned women who participated in the research, and all of those women, who have, over the past seven years, be-friended me. Abstract This dissertation deals with the question of whether women prisoners’ identities are completely subjugated by the prison or whether they are able to resist identity- subjugation. My thesis is that, although women prisoners are subjugated as prisoners, they have developed ways of resisting subjugation as women. This study is based on a critical ethnography of women’s experiences of imprisonment in Ireland in both a historical and contemporary context. Methodologically the study is informed by feminist epistemology, discourse analysis, and semiotics. The aim of the research was to explore the social and spatial experiences of imprisonment. The historical data is taken from published and archived memoirs, historiographies, prison records and reports. The contemporary data is based on a quantitative profile of women currently in prison, the crimes for which they are imprisoned and the sentence imposed upon them. I also conducted a series of qualitative in-depth interviews with 83 imprisoned women. During these interviews I photographed the women’s personal prison spaces. Using a series of photo-elicitation interviews, I examined with the women the meanings of their personal prison spaces and the meanings of the artefacts which they displayed within those spaces. In addition, I interviewed thirty people involved with and working in the prisons; conducted a content and semiotic analysis of print media representations of women’s prisoners in a range of newspapers; and undertook an examination of the structures of the women’s prisons. The analysis of the research material reveals a comprehensive profile of women prisoner’s experiences in the Irish prison system. The meaning, effect and implications of their experiences are established. The main conclusions centre on the manner in which these prison experiences shape their identities, subjectivities, and senses of self. Table of Contents Chapter One Introduction 1 1.1 The Research Project 2 1.2 Situating the Research 4 1.3 The Thesis 11 1.4 Organisation of the Chapters 12 Chapter Two Literature Review 14 2.1 Identity, Criminality and Penality 15 2.2 Gender and Class: The Critical Dimensions 23 2.3 Historical Representations of Criminal Women 28 2.4 Contemporary Representations of Criminal Women 33 2.5 Prison Space 36 2.6 Penal Gazes 41 2.6(i) Media Gaze 42 2.6(ii) Expert Gaze 48 2.7 The Irish Female Prison Experience 52 2.8 Summary 57 Chapter Three Research Methodology 58 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Ethnography 59 3.3 A Feminist Study 62 3.4 Data Collection Techniques 67 3.4(i) Observation 68 3.4(ii) In-depth Interviews 69 3.4(iii) Spatial Analysis 76 3.4(iv) Content Analysis 80 3.4(v) Archival Analysis 83 3.4(vi) Discourse Analysis 83 3.5 The Research Process 86 Chapter Four Historical Experiences 88 4.1 The Nineteenth Century: women in Irish society 89 4.2 Prisons: Policies, Philosophies and Institutions 91 4.3 The Women Imprisoned 97 4.4 Conditions and Accommodations 104 4.5 Female Criminality in the 1800’s 108 4.6 Female Imprisonment in the 1800’s 114 v ii 4.7 The Twentieth Century: Prisons: Policies, Philosophies and Institutions 115 4.9 The Women Imprisoned 128 4.10 Female Imprisonment in the 1900’s 137 4.5 Summary 139 Chapter Five Contemporary Discourses 141 5.1 Expert Gazes 141 5.2 The Press 145 5.3 Prison Staff 154 5.4 Prison Structures 170 5.4(i) Reception 171 5.4(iii) Healthcare 175 5.4(iii) Education 183 5.4(iv) Accommodation 189 5.5 Summary 192 Chapter Six Contemporary Profiles, Prison Experiences and Personal Identities 193 6.1 Profiles 193 6.1 (i) The Women Imprisoned in the Dochas Centre over One Year 193 6.1 (ii) A Profile of the Women on One Day in the Dochas Centre 199 6.1 (iii) The Women Interviewed 201 ‘Trustees’ 202 Addicted Women 205 6.2 Prison Experiences 210 6.2 (i) Experiences of Control 211 6.2 (ii) Prison Structures 213 6.2 (iii) Prison Discipline 217 6.3 Personal Identities 224 6.3 (i) The Sub-cultures 225 6.3(ii) The Addicted Women 228 6.3 (iii) Sexuality 230 6.3(iv) The Media 235 6.3(v) Prisoner Identities 237 6.4 Summary 239 Chapter Seven Presentations of Self 241 7.1 Female Prison Space 241 7.2 Signs and Signifiers 244 7.3 Representing Self 249 7.4 Performing the Feminine 267 7.5 The Women in Their Spaces 270 v iii 7.6 Summary 279 Conclusions Chapter Eight 281 The Dochas Centre 282 Bibliography 283 Appendices Appendix 1 Ireland’s Prisons 329 Appendix 2 A Journey into the Women’s Prisons 330 Appendix 3 Interviewees (Working with the Prisons) 341 Appendix 4 Interview Schedule (Those workers) 342 Appendix 5 Interview Schedule (Imprisoned Women) 343 Appendix 6 Photo-Elicitation Interview Schedule 355 Appendix 7 Historical Data 356 Appendix 8 Kilmainham Data 358 Appendix 9 Average Daily Number/Closure of Prisons 1930-2000 360 Appendix 10 Prison Industries 361 Appendix 11 Table of Offences 1930-1990 362 Appendix 12 Recidivism Rates 365 Appendix 13 List of Newspaper Article Titles 366 Appendix 14 In the Press 373 Appendix 15 The Women Featured 374 Appendix 16 Home Address - Women Currently Imprisoned 375 Appendix 17 Listed Data - Range of Offences 2000-2001 377 List of Photographs Chapter Four Photograph One: Aerial shot Mountjoy Prison 1949 97 Photograph Two: Mountjoy Prison 1993 123 Photograph Three: The Dochas Centre 125 Photograph Four: The path to the female wing of Limerick Prison 127 Chapter Five Photograph Five: The Dochas Centre 167 Photograph Six: One of two duplicate corridors in Limerick Prison 174 Photograph Seven: Padded Cell with Refractory Gowns and Blankets: Dochas Centre 178 Photograph Eight: Door into females’ school: Limerick Prison 187 Photograph Nine: The women’s exercise yard in Limerick Prison 190 Chapter Six Photograph Ten: The Big Yard in The Dochas Centre 217 Photograph Eleven: Double Cell Limerick Prison 220 Photograph Twelve: Padded Cell: The Dochas Centre 222 Photograph Thirteen: Two-woman cell: Limerick Prison 224 Chapter Seven Photograph Fourteen: The artist’s studio: Dochas Centre 246 Photograph Fifteen: An empty room: the Dochas Centre 249 Photograph Sixteen: An inhabited room: the Dochas Centre 250 Photograph Seventeen: A woman’s room: Dochas Centre 251 Photograph Eighteen: A woman’s room: Dochas Centre 252 Photograph Nineteen: Woman’s cell: Limerick Prison 253 Photograph Twenty: Bedside locker, woman’s room: Dochas Centre 254 Photograph Twenty-One: Bedside locker, woman’s room: Dochas Centre 255 Photograph Twenty-Two: Double occupancy cell: new accommodation, Limerick Prison 256 Photograph Twenty-Three: From a wall in a cell in Limerick Prison 257 Photograph Twenty-four: Poster, wall in woman’s room, Dochas Centre 258 Photograph Twenty-five: A woman’s cell, old accommodation: Limerick Prison 259 Photograph Twenty-Six: Woman’s room: Dochas Centre 260 Photograph Twenty-seven: Cell in Limerick Prison 261 Photograph Twenty-eight:
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Thinking Intersectionally About Women, Race, and Social Control Kimberlé W
    From Private Violence to Mass Incarceration: Thinking Intersectionally About Women, Race, and Social Control Kimberlé W. Crenshaw ABSTRACT UCLA LAW REVIEW UCLA LAW The structural and political dimensions of gender violence and mass incarceration are linked in multiple ways. The myriad causes and consequences of mass incarceration discussed herein call for increased attention to the interface between the dynamics that constitute race, gender, and class power, as well as to the way these dynamics converge and rearticulate themselves within institutional settings to manufacture social punishment and human suffering. Beyond addressing the convergences between private and public power that constitute the intersectional dimensions of social control, this Article addresses political failures within the antiracism and antiviolence movements that may contribute to the legitimacy of the contemporary punishment culture, both ideologically and materially. AUTHOR Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law Schools. I have benefited tremendously from the comments, suggestions, and helpful insights of Luke Charles Harris, Devon Carbado, George Lipsitz, Barbara Tomlinson, Gary Peller, Joseph Doherty, Stephanie Bush-Baskette, Monique Morris, and the participants of the African American Policy Forum’s Social Justice Writers Workshop. Allen Secretov, Scott Dewey, Ezra Corral, and Stephanie Plotin provided excellent research assistance. I would also like to express my gratitude to the UCLA Law Review for sponsoring this symposium, to the participants who shared their work and insights, and to my colleagues in the Critical Race Studies Program who contributed to the symposium’s success. Lastly, I would like to thank my faculty co-leads on this symposium, Jyoti Nanda and Priscilla Ocen, who worked tirelessly to see this important symposium come to fruition.
    [Show full text]
  • © 2014 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Original U.S. Government Works
    Dignam, Brett 8/7/2014 For Educational Use Only PUNISHING PREGNANCY: RACE, INCARCERATION, AND..., 100 Cal. L. Rev. 1239 100 Cal. L. Rev. 1239 California Law Review October, 2012 Article PUNISHING PREGNANCY: RACE, INCARCERATION, AND THE SHACKLING OF PREGNANT PRISONERS a1 Priscilla A. Ocen a2 Copyright (c) 2012 California Law Review, Inc., a California Nonprofit Corporation; Priscilla A. Ocen The shackling of pregnant prisoners during labor and childbirth is endemic within women's penal institutions in the United States. This Article investigates the factors that account for the pervasiveness of this practice and suggests doctrinal innovations that may be leveraged to prevent its continuation. At a general level, this Article asserts that we cannot understand the persistence of the shackling of female prisoners without understanding how historical constructions of race and gender operate structurally to both motivate and mask its use. More specifically, this Article contends that while shackling affects female prisoners of all races today, the persistent practice attaches to Black women in particular through the historical devaluation, regulation, and punishment of their exercise of reproductive capacity in three contexts: slavery, convict leasing, and chain gangs in the South. The regulation and punishment of Black women within these oppressive systems reinforced and reproduced stereotypes of these women as deviant and dangerous. In turn, as Southern penal practices proliferated in the United States and Black women became a significant percentage of the female *1240 prison population, these images began to animate harsh practices against all female prisoners. Moreover, this Article asserts that current jurisprudence concerning the Eighth Amendment, the primary constitutional vehicle for challenging conditions of confinement, such as shackling, is insufficient to combat racialized practices at the structural level.
    [Show full text]
  • Women in Prison in Oregon
    WOMEN IN PRISON IN OREGON DATA, PATHWAYS INTO INCARCERATION, AND CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN PRISONERS. BEN SCISSORS AND ALICE LUNDELL ABOUT OREGON JUSTICE RESOURCE CENTER OJRC is a Portland, Oregon, 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 2011. We work to promote civil rights and improve legal representation for communities that have often been underserved in the past: people living in poverty and people of color among them. Our clients are currently and formerly incarcerated Oregonians. We work in partnership with other, like-minded organizations to maximize our reach to serve underrepresented populations, train public interest lawyers, and educate our community on civil rights and civil liberties concerns. We are a client-centered organization that uses integrative advocacy to achieve our goals. This strategy includes focused direct legal services, public awareness campaigns, strategic partnerships, and coordinating our legal and advocacy area to positively impact outcomes in favor of criminal justice reforms. WOMEN IN PRISON PROJECT The Women in Prison Project is a program of OJRC. We created the Project as the first and only program in Oregon to exclusively address the needs of women who are intersecting with the criminal justice system. Our goals are to ensure the criminal justice system treats women fairly, protects their health and safety, and makes it possible for them to successfully rejoin their communities when they are released. We do this through integrative advocacy: combining litigation, legislative and other reforms, and other policy and communications initiatives. For more information, contact Project Director and Attorney, Julia Yoshimoto, at [email protected]. www.ojrc.org “Women’s engagement in crime ..
    [Show full text]
  • Eighteenth Report Draft Statute Law (Repeals) Bill
    Law Commission Reforming the law Statute Law Repeals: Eighteenth Report Draft Statute Law (Repeals) Bill Joint Report Law Com No 308 / Scot Law Com No 210 The Law Commission and The Scottish Law Commission (LAW COM No 308) (SCOT LAW COM No 210) STATUTE LAW REPEALS: EIGHTEENTH REPORT DRAFT STATUTE LAW (REPEALS) BILL Presented to the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice by Command of Her Majesty Laid before the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish Ministers January 2008 Cm 7303 SG/2008/4 £25.75 The Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission were set up by the Law Commissions Act 1965 for the purpose of promoting the reform of the law. The Law Commissioners are: The Honourable Mr Justice Etherton, Chairman Mr Stuart Bridge Mr David Hertzell Professor Jeremy Horder Mr Kenneth Parker QC The interim Chief Executive of the Law Commission is Mr William Arnold.1 The Law Commission is located at Conquest House, 37-38 John Street, Theobalds Road, London WC1N 2BQ. The Scottish Law Commissioners are: The Honourable Lord Drummond Young, Chairman Professor George L Gretton Professor Gerard Maher QC Professor Joseph M Thomson Mr Colin J Tyre QC The Chief Executive of the Scottish Law Commission is Mr Michael Lugton. The Scottish Law Commission is located at 140 Causewayside, Edinburgh, EH9 1PR. The terms of this report were agreed on 3 December 2007 The text of this report is available on the Internet at: http://www.lawcom.gov.uk http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk 0 Crown Copyright 2008 The text in this document (excluding the Royal Arms and departmental logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing that it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context.
    [Show full text]
  • The Status and Roles Assigned Female Personnel in the Permanent Defence Forces
    Dublin City University Women in Combat: The status and roles assigned female personnel in the Permanent Defence Forces. Thesis submitted to the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies for the degree of Ph.D August 2000 Thomas Martin Clonan B.Ed. M.A.C.C.S. Supervisor: Dr. Maggie Gibbon I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Ph. D. is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. SIGNED: ID No. 96970499 DATE: 01 August 2000. ABSTRACT Women in Combat: The Status and Roles Assigned Female Personnel in the Permanent Defence Forces (PDF). The aim of the PhD study is to examine critically the integration of female personnel within the Permanent Defence Forces (PDF). Their integration is examined in light of the deployment of women in the international military, and in light of a liberal-feminist examination of the workplace in terms of its equality of opportunity agenda. It is argued that the sex-role stereotyping used to recruit young men in to the military in the past along with socio-biological theories of women’s and men’s appropriate spheres of activity have combined to disempower women within military culture, i.e; women’s involvement represents a threat to the constructed masculinity the military embodies. Despite the persistence of patriarchal culture within the sphere of the military, there has been an unprecedented growth in the numbers of women within the military in the west due to the demands of modem total and technological warfare.
    [Show full text]
  • Statute Law Revision Bill 2007 ————————
    ———————— AN BILLE UM ATHCHO´ IRIU´ AN DLI´ REACHTU´ IL 2007 STATUTE LAW REVISION BILL 2007 ———————— Mar a tionscnaı´odh As initiated ———————— ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS Section 1. Definitions. 2. General statute law revision repeal and saver. 3. Specific repeals. 4. Assignment of short titles. 5. Amendment of Short Titles Act 1896. 6. Amendment of Short Titles Act 1962. 7. Miscellaneous amendments to post-1800 short titles. 8. Evidence of certain early statutes, etc. 9. Savings. 10. Short title and collective citation. SCHEDULE 1 Statutes retained PART 1 Pre-Union Irish Statutes 1169 to 1800 PART 2 Statutes of England 1066 to 1706 PART 3 Statutes of Great Britain 1707 to 1800 PART 4 Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801 to 1922 [No. 5 of 2007] SCHEDULE 2 Statutes Specifically Repealed PART 1 Pre-Union Irish Statutes 1169 to 1800 PART 2 Statutes of England 1066 to 1706 PART 3 Statutes of Great Britain 1707 to 1800 PART 4 Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801 to 1922 ———————— 2 Acts Referred to Bill of Rights 1688 1 Will. & Mary, Sess. 2. c. 2 Documentary Evidence Act 1868 31 & 32 Vict., c. 37 Documentary Evidence Act 1882 45 & 46 Vict., c. 9 Dower Act, 1297 25 Edw. 1, Magna Carta, c. 7 Drainage and Improvement of Lands Supplemental Act (Ireland) (No. 2) 1867 31 & 32 Vict., c. 3 Dublin Hospitals Regulation Act 1856 19 & 20 Vict., c. 110 Evidence Act 1845 8 & 9 Vict., c. 113 Forfeiture Act 1639 15 Chas., 1. c. 3 General Pier and Harbour Act 1861 Amendment Act 1862 25 & 26 Vict., c.
    [Show full text]
  • About the Artists
    Fishamble: The New Play Company presents Swing Written by Steve Blount, Peter Daly, Gavin Kostick and Janet Moran Performed by Arthur Riordan and Gene Rooney ABOUT THE ARTISTS: Arthur Riordan - Performer (Joe): is a founder member of Rough Magic and has appeared in many of their productions, including Peer Gynt, Improbable Frequency, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer, and more. He has also worked with the Abbey & Peacock Theatre, Gaiety Theatre, Corcadorca, Pan Pan, Druid, The Corn Exchange, Bedrock Productions, Red Kettle, Fishamble, Project, Bewleys Café Theatre and most recently, with Livin’ Dred, in their production of The Kings Of The Kilburn High Road. Film and TV appearances include Out Of Here, Ripper Street, The Clinic, Fair City, Refuge, Borstal Boy, Rat, Pitch’n’Putt with Joyce’n’Beckett, My Dinner With Oswald, and more. Gene Rooney - Performer (May): has performed on almost every stage in Ireland in over 40 productions. Some of these include: Buck Jones and the Bodysnatchers (Dublin Theatre Festival), The Colleen Bawn Trials (Limerick City of Culture), Pigtown, The Taming of the Shrew, Lovers (Island Theatre Company), The Importance of Being Earnest (Gúna Nua), Our Father (With an F Productions), How I Learned to Drive (The Lyric, Belfast), I ❤Alice ❤ I (Hot for Theatre), TV and film work includes Moone Boy, Stella Days, The Sea, Hideaways, Killinaskully, Botched, The Last Furlong and The Clinic Janet Moran - Writer Janet’s stage work includes Juno and the Paycock (National Theatre, London/Abbey Theatre coproduction), Shibari, Translations, No Romance, The Recruiting Officer, The Cherry orchard, She Stoops to Conquer, Communion, The Barbaric Comedies, The Well of the Saints and The Hostage (all at the Abbey Theatre).
    [Show full text]
  • The Horan Family Diaspora Since Leaving Ireland 191 Years Ago
    A Genealogical Report on the Descendants of Michael Horan and Mary Minnock by A.L. McDevitt Introduction The purpose of this report is to identify the descendants of Michael Horan and Mary Minnock While few Horans live in the original settlement locations, there are still many people from the surrounding areas of Caledon, and Simcoe County, Ontario who have Horan blood. Though heavily weigh toward information on the Albion Township Horans, (the descendants of William Horan and Honorah Shore), I'm including more on the other branches as information comes in. That is the descendants of the Horans that moved to Grey County, Ontario and from there to Michigan and Wisconsin and Montana. I also have some information on the Horans that moved to Western Canada. This report was done using Family Tree Maker 2012. The Genealogical sites I used the most were Ancestry.ca, Family Search.com and Automatic Genealogy. While gathering information for this report I became aware of the importance of getting this family's story written down while there were still people around who had a connection with the past. In the course of researching, I became aware of some differences in the original settlement stories. I am including these alternate versions of events in this report, though I may be personally skeptical of the validity of some of the facts presented. All families have myths. I feel the dates presented in the Land Petitions of Mary Minnock and the baptisms in the County Offaly, Ireland, Rahan Parish registers speak for themselves. Though not a professional Genealogist, I have the obligation to not mislead other researchers.
    [Show full text]
  • Behind the Contract for Welfare Reform: Antecedent Themes in Welfare to Work Programs
    Behind the contract for welfare reform: antecedent themes in welfare to work programs Article (Published Version) Paz-Fuchs, Amir (2008) Behind the contract for welfare reform: antecedent themes in welfare to work programs. Berkeley Journal of Labor and Employment Law, 29 (2). pp. 101-150. ISSN 1067-7666 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/46104/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Behind the Contract for Welfare Reform: Antecedent Themes in Welfare to Work Programs Amir Paz-Fuchs† “What’s past is prologue.” —The Tempest Welfare-to-work programs throughout history and across jurisdictions exhibit similar traits, in form as well as in substance.
    [Show full text]
  • Lycra, Legs, and Legitimacy: Performances of Feminine Power in Twentieth Century American Popular Culture
    LYCRA, LEGS, AND LEGITIMACY: PERFORMANCES OF FEMININE POWER IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE Quincy Thomas A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2018 Committee: Jonathan Chambers, Advisor Francisco Cabanillas, Graduate Faculty Representative Bradford Clark Lesa Lockford © 2018 Quincy Thomas All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jonathan Chambers, Advisor As a child, when I consumed fictional narratives that centered on strong female characters, all I noticed was the enviable power that they exhibited. From my point of view, every performance by a powerful character like Wonder Woman, Daisy Duke, or Princess Leia, served to highlight her drive, ability, and intellect in a wholly uncomplicated way. What I did not notice then was the often-problematic performances of female power that accompanied those narratives. As a performance studies and theatre scholar, with a decades’ old love of all things popular culture, I began to ponder the troubling question: Why are there so many popular narratives focused on female characters who are, on a surface level, portrayed as bastions of strength, that fall woefully short of being true representations of empowerment when subjected to close analysis? In an endeavor to answer this question, in this dissertation I examine what I contend are some of the paradoxical performances of female heroism, womanhood, and feminine aggression from the 1960s to the 1990s. To facilitate this investigation, I engage in close readings of several key aesthetic and cultural texts from these decades. While the Wonder Woman comic book universe serves as the centerpiece of this study, I also consider troublesome performances and representations of female power in the television shows Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the film Grease, the stage musical Les Misérables, and the video game Tomb Raider.
    [Show full text]
  • All Along the Banks of the Royal Canal” at Binns Bridge
    AllAll alongalong thethe BanksBanks ofof thethe RoyalRoyal CanalCanal TraditionalTraditional SingingSinging WalkingWalking TourTour FrankFrank HarteHarte FestivalFestival 20172017 SundaySunday 24th24th SeptemberSeptember 20172017 Starts at Cross Guns Bridge, Phibsborough, at 11am. AN GÓILÍN - FRANK HARTE FESTIVAL Introduction UBLIN CITY has many waterways; the rivers Liffey, Tolka, Dodder, Camac and Poddle feature in her many songs. The city is also endowed Dwith two canals built two centuries ago, the Grand and the Royal Canals one of which enters the city through Clondalkin and Inchicore, and the latter through Ashtown and Cabra. Each is associated with a great writer – Patrick Kavanagh’s park bench statue haunts the precincts of the Grand Canal near Baggot Street Bridge, and Brendan Behan’s equally fitting memorial casts a melancholic shadow “all along the banks of the Royal Canal” at Binns Bridge. The Royal Canal (An Chanáil Ríoga) was built to carry freight and passenger transportation from the River Liffey to Longford. Work started in 1790 and twenty-seven years later it reached the Shannon in 1817. The system is 145 Kilometres (90 miles) long, with 46 locks. The Canal is fed by Lough Owel which enters the canal at Mullingar. It passes through Maynooth, Kilcock, Enfield, Mullingar, and Ballymahon with a spur to Longford. It cost one and a half million pounds to build and, four years after its completion, the Royal Canal Company was declared bankrupt. Our walk today focuses on the Royal Canal and its history as told in song and story, as it flows slowly from the fourth lock below Cross Guns Bridge in Phiborough to Russell Street Bridge under the shadow of Croke Park.
    [Show full text]
  • Brendan Behan Interviews and Recollections
    Brendan Behan Interviews and Recollections Volume 1 Also by E. H. Mikhail The Social and Cultural Setting of the 189os John Galsworthy the Dramatist Comedy and Tragedy Sean O'Casey: A Bibliography of Criticism A Bibliography of Modern Irish Drama 1899-1970 Dissertations on Anglo-Irish Drama The Sting and the Twinkle: Conversations with Sean O'Casey (co-editor with John O'Riordan) J. M. Synge: A Bibliography of Criticism Contemporary British Drama 195o-1976 J. M. Synge: Interviews and Recollections (editor) W. B. Yeats: Interviews and Recollections (two volumes) (editor) English Drama I900-1950 Lady Gregory: Interviews and Recollections (editor) Oscar Wilde: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism Oscar Wilde: Interviews and Recollections (two volumes) (editor) A Research Guide to Modern Irish Dramatists The Art of Brendan Behan Brendan Behan: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism An Annotated Bibliography of Modern Anglo-Irish Drama Lady Gregory: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism BRENDAN BEHAN Interviews and Recollections Volume 1 Edited by E. H. Mikhail M Macmillan Gill and Macmillan Selection and editorial matter © E. H. Mikhail 1982 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1982 978-0-333-31565-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1g82 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-06015-3 ISBN 978-1-349-06013-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-06013-9 Published in Ireland by GILL AND MACMILLAN LTD Goldenbridge Dublin 8 Contents Acknowledgements Vll Introduction lX A Note on the Text Xll Chronological Table Xlll INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS The Golden Boy Stephen Behan I Schooldays 2 Moving Out Dominic Behan 2 A Bloody Joke Dominic Behan 7 Dublin Boy Goes to Borstal 9 The Behan I Knew Was So Gentle C.
    [Show full text]