Paula Meehan’s "Cell": The Imprisoned Dialogue of Female Discourses

Katarzyna Poloczek

doi:10.1515/rela-2015-0008

Authors

Katarzyna Poloczek Łódź University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/rela-2015-0008

Keywords:

discourse, feminism, metaphor, Irish studies

Abstract

The paper discusses Paula Mehan’s play Cell with focus on the female discourses present in the context of this literary work and the multifold metaphorisation that both the title of the work and the contents invite. The discourses are analysed against the relevant social background and critical literature. The focal types of discourses under discussion involve imagery from maternal and familiar discourse, the “biological” discourse related to hygiene, the sexual discourse, the mock feminist discourse, the discourse of the military and the propaganda of the common good, and the discourse related to the animal world.

Author Biography

Katarzyna Poloczek, Łódź University

Katarzyna Poloczek works as a senior lecturer at the University of Lodz. Her research area involves modern literature in English, contemporary fiction and poetry, specifically Irish women’s poetry, Irish studies, film and media studies, gender studies. Her doctoral dissertation analysed the works by key contemporary Irish women’s poets. Her post-doctoral book Towards Female Empowerment − The New Generation of Irish Women Poets: Vona Groarke, Sinéad Morrissey, Caítriona O’Reilly, and Mary O’Donoghue is coming out in print in 2015.

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